Raising awareness-The Lightning Thief
by Leebecky06
Summary: Demigods are sent to the year 1996 to read the books with the gods. The gods will learn about the hardships and trials of being a demigod. Secrets will be revealed about a certain Son of Poseidon. Will they survive their latest adventure? Read to find out.
1. Blast to the past

**Hi, I am aware that this is very cliché but it appeals to me so yeah….. Anyway flames are welcome to help the poor author improve her writing. This chapter is dedicated to PercyJacksonObsession an awesome writer. Check out her stories which are awesome. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus and its characters. They belong to Rick Riordan. All rights belong to him. And parts of this story belong to PercyJacksonObsession who allowed me to borrow it. **

Camp Half Blood

The mood at Camp Half Blood was at an all-time low. Percy Jackson was missing. It seemed like all the laughter and joy had disappeared with him. The flames of the campfire were pitch black reflecting the camper's mood.

When Hera had taken Percy, she did not know that she was taking more than just a demigod. She was taking away the very foundation of the camp.

Percy was more than just a camper. He was their brother that they never had. He knew ever camper's life story, protected them, he comforted them when they were down, with him they always felt safe. He was more than just a friend, he was a role-model, a leader, the one they turned to when they needed help. At times he was even a father figure. He was everything to them. Not to mention crush. It wasn't hard to fall for the loyal and laid back Son of Poseidon.

But he was missing…

Taken by Hera to the Roman camp. Switched with Jason Grace a poor substitute. He was probably half way across the world on a quest to save the world again… This was Percy they were talking about after all. He couldn't go five minutes without helping somebody.

Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, Nico Di Angelo, Clarisse La Rue, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Conner and Travis Stoll, Katie Gardner, Chris Rodriguez, and Will Solace were working on the Argo 2 in an attempt to take their minds off Percy. But they couldn't. They were afraid that Percy may not remember them, or that he had changed. What if he was dead? Than all of their work would be in vain…

Piper, Leo and Jason were wondering what was so great about Percy Jackson. For different reasons.

Piper was wondering about how a single person could touch so many hearts. She had only heard rumors about him. Whenever she tried to ask someone about him they could never answer… She found herself yearning to learn more about him.

Leo wanted to know more about Percy because he was his idol. He had heard campers saying about how Percy was the Savior of Olympus. The Greatest Hero of All Times they called him. Percy Jackson had so many titles. Leo wanted to be sure that he had earned all of it…

But Jason was a completely different story. He wanted to know why the heck did everyone think Percy Jackson was better than him. He defeated a titan for the god's sake, Jackson probably couldn't even do half of that. He couldn't wait to go Camp Jupiter where they worshipped him not Jackson.

Piper walked over to Annabeth, hating the fact that the Daughter of Athena looked so depressed, Leo and Jason following behind her. "Annabeth-" she started putting her arm around the teen to comfort her "- we're going to find him. The Argo 2 is almost complete, we will be able to find him soon…" Jason scowled at the mention of 'him' , while Leo perked up.

Annabeth clenched her fists around something in her lap, looking down at it sadly, "What if they didn't trust him Piper? What if he got a new girlfriend, or died, or doesn't even remember me!?" her voice rose with each word, and at the end of it she was almost hysterical.

Piper swallowed looking down at her shoes before she looked up again, "we just will okay, I promise."

Annabeth looked up at Piper and gave her a faint smile, "I hope your right" she whispered looking down sadly again. " I just wish that …" she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence but she didn't have to anyway, after all everyone knew that she wanted Percy back.

At that moment Piper saw what Annabeth had been looking at, it was a picture of a hot guy. An extremely hot guy. He looked to be at least six feet tall, -only about an inch taller than Jason- had tousled, unruly raven black hair, gorgeous sea green eyes, and even had a six pack –slender and lithe, a swimmer's build. He was perfectly toned, and had a cute trouble-maker smile and had an arm around Annabeth, who for the first time since Piper had met her, was smiling. They were on the beach, and Percy was shirtless. He didn't seem her type –too rebellious, but it didn't mean he wasn't hot.

Before she could finish gaping at the picture, they were overcome by a bright light, disappearing and leaving no trace behind.

Camp Jupiter

Camp Jupiter's atmosphere was a complete opposite to Camp Half Blood's. The Romans were all smiling and laughing because of the one and only Percy Jackson.

Percy was a great guy who picked them up when they were down, always there with a smile or a shoulder to cry on, he never put them down or threw them to the wolves when they showed their emotions. He made them more like a family and not so military like. So needless to say they all loved Percy.

Percy, Frank and Hazel were currently relaxing on the shore of the Little Tiber. There was a peaceful silence around them. After a while, Percy spoke up "They are going to kill me" he mumbled.

Hazel giggled and shook her head, curls bouncing at the movement, "They won't kill you, you're too lovable." Frank laughed, "I definitely agree with the not killing you part, but the lovable part… well I'm not sure….."

The fact that the waters of the Little Tiber suddenly gained a mind of its and pulled Frank into the river was purely coincidence. (note the sarcasm) A few minutes later after Frank was rescued by Percy from the river and dried off, the three of them were lying down in the soft grass laughing and pointing out shapes in the clouds, hands behind their heads, their heads forming a triangle like in one of those cheesy hurt/comfort movies.

"Thanks guys…" Percy mumbled with a soft smile on his face.

"No problem Perce" they spoke in unison as if rehearsed, before being overwhelmed by a bright light and disappearing mysteriously.

Olympus 1996 

Things on Olympus during the Winter Solstice were not so peaceful…

The gods was arguing again… Thunder was booming, lightning was flashing, the gods was screaming at each other, shadows bending, waves crashing and little kids were screaming. Yup, just your average day on Olympus.

"YOU KILLED MY DAUGHTER!"

"WELL YOU TURNED HER INTO A TREE!"

"EAT YOUR CEREAL!"

"ZEUS YOU CHEATED ON ME AGAIN!"

"FOR THE LAST TIME I WON ATHENS FAIR AND SQUARE!"

"HERMES GIVE ME BACK MY WALLET!"

"GREEN GRASS BREAKS THROUGH SNOW

LITTLE SIS ASKING FOR HELP

I AM SO AWESOME"

"I AM OLDER THAN YOU APOLLO AND DON'T CALL ME LITTLE SIS!"

Meanwhile, the young demigods that had come with Chiron for a field trip were trembling. They knew that a single accident could cause the end of their life or even the end of the world if the gods got mad enough. A snap of a finger and 'boom' they were dead.

The only one not arguing was Hestia. She watched the argument before sighing and shaking her head. Why couldn't they get along and be a family? They didn't even realize that they were scaring their kids. She shook her head once again before turning back to the hearth and watching in the fire a young boy about 7 who had captured her interest. The young boy was quite adorable and had messy jet black hair and very familiar sea green eyes.

All of this was interrupted with a bright flash of light so bright, that even the gods had to look away. When they looked back, there were about nineteen children falling from the sky, most likely towards their deaths, and screaming their heads off. They were all in so much shock, no one tried to catch them, so you can imagine their surprise when one of them held out his hand and all the water from the fountains joined together cushioning their fall. The boy flipped in the air before landing, joining the mass panic, clinging to them and screaming.

They continued screaming, hugging each other as if there was no tomorrow, until the water controlling boy stopped suddenly and said "Well I feel silly."

This caused all heads to turn towards him, but the children didn't seem to notice the gods and young demigods staring at them. Young Annabeth gaped as she saw Thalia, only slightly older, standing there in her presence, and ran to hug her. However, her hope turned to sadness when she got there and instead of being hugged like she expected, saw Thalia rush to the Water Boy, along with about ten others, and wrap him in a hug and scream "Percy!" over and over again as if they couldn't believe he was there.

The demigods in question were hugging him tightly, overjoyed that he was there and clinging to him as if he were life itself, even Clarisse. They all had tears of joy, and Percy was hugging them back just as fierce.

Frank and Hazel grinned. "I take it you're the Greeks, Percy's family right?" Hazel asked.

They all turned to her, startled and taking her in, before nodding. Annabeth stepped forward. "I'm-"

"Let me guess." Hazel interrupted. "Annabeth, his mega smart, kick butt awesome girlfriend." Annabeth grinned at the description, grabbing Percy's hand, while the gods and young demigods stared wide eyed, mainly young Annabeth, wondering how she didn't end up with Luke, "Thalia, his annoying but awesome cousin who is like his sister," Thalia smiled at Percy, wrapping him in a one armed hug which he gladly returned, while Jason stared on fuming. She was his sister after all. "Nico, whom we all know and some want to strangle for saying you didn't know Percy," everyone turned to him, and he swallowed, "but is like a brother to him, "now he smiled, "Grover Underwood, his best friend ever," Grover fist-bumped Percy, "Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the awesome Oracle" Rachel hugged Percy "Clarisse, Percy's frenemy." Clarisse smirked, glad she was remembered, "Chris, one of Percy's closest friends," Chris grinned, glad he was included. "Travis and Conner Stoll, Percy's close friends that are fun to prank with. " they high fived "Katie Gardner, Percy's close friend who he helps get revenge on the Stolls with," This caused Katie to laugh and nod, "and Will Solace, another one of his close friends." at this point, all of Percy's friends were smiling, hugging him again, and Annabeth kissed his cheek.

Percy flashed the famous 'Jackson grin', "I really missed you guys!"

"Now that that's over"- Reyna clapped her hands together, surprisingly cheerful. She turned to Percy. -"What did you do!?" she exclaimed towards him. Percy shook his head.

"It wasn't me for once!" he told her, waving his arms in the air in denial.

Thalia snorted. "I find that highly unlikely, Kelp Head," she rolled her eyes at him. Percy huffed.

"You guys are jerks." He grumbled, but he was smiling. He had really missed them.

"Who, us?" they asked in unison, eyes widened innocently.

"Pfft. You guys have no idea how to do a puppy dog look," he told them with an eye roll.

"You do it then, Kelp Head!" Thalia demanded. Percy grinned mischievously, before widening his beautiful sea-green eyes slightly, making them water a little and sticking out his rosy bottom lip a little.

"Me?" he asked in an innocent voice. The demigods that hadn't seen the face before went wide eyed, while the others rolled their eyes.

"I hate you, Kelp Head," Thalia huffed. Percy grinned his breathtaking smile that the Greeks missed so much.

"No you don't. You love me!" he told her. She sighed.

You better believe it." She conceded a tint of relief in her voice as she pulled him into another one armed hug.

The others smiled at the scene before them, but before they could do anything, Zeus boomed, "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

The demigods jumped startled, glancing around, wondering why Olympus was back to the old way, before Annabeth gained her bearings. "You don't- you don't recognize us?"

"Should I?" he questioned suspiciously.

"Well we did save Olympus." Travis put in, glancing warily around the room.

The god's eyes grew wide. "Why does Olympus need saving?" Athena questioned.

Before the demigods could respond, a note fell from the sky along with a huge box. They all glanced at each other, before pushing Percy forwards, knowing he was the most powerful. He scowled, before muttering under his breath, "Some friends you are." and picked up the giant box impressively, and the note. He stared at it before scowling and handing it to Annabeth. "I can't read it. It's English." She smirked and read it.

_Dear gods and demigods of the present and future,_

_You are probably wondering why we sent you here, and for the gods what they are doing here. They are here to read books about the Greatest Hero of All Time, even though he would never admit it, Percy Jackson. We have sent the older demigods from the future and will be watching for our own amusement. Soon, another note will come telling you about our own little twist while you read. Enjoy. Kids, don't hurt the gods. Gods, no vaporizing._

_From,_

_Apollo, the awesomest *thunder* second awesomest god ever_

_The Fates_

_P.S. Full titles (That means you Percy)_

They were all silent, glancing between Percy, who was blushing like crazy, and the note, until Nico, Thalia, and the Stolls yelled out, "BLACKMAIL!" causing Percy to groan. Suddenly, he smirked deviously, eyes twinkling with mischief.

"I hope you realize that I have blackmail against all of you too." he smirked, staring pointedly at Thalia and Nico, who scowled.

"Zip it."

"Them hurt us. Pfft, as if they could." Ares scoffed, while Percy smirked at him.

"I dunno," Percy drawled in a singsongy voice "Maybe we could-" he was interrupted by Annabeth's hand covering his mouth, and she smiled sweetly at the God's shocked expressions.

"Well then-" Zeus said, breaking the conversation, "Introduce yourselves then demigods."

They all pushed Annabeth forward as the gods took her in.

She was beautiful, that was for sure. She was about 5ft. 7in. and had a pearly white smile. Her curly blonde hair was up in a ponytail and she was wearing a grey tank top with an owl on it, and skinny jeans along with black converses. She was obviously athletic and had stormy yet intimidating grey eyes that seemed to be calculating everything in the room. She also had a strange stripe of grey in her hair. "Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena, bearer of the sky, Architect of Olympus, Sailor of the Sea of Monsters, Wanderer of the Labyrinth, Hero of Olympus, and One of the Seven, Girlfriend of Percy Jackson" Everyone gaped at her and she smiled, and young Annabeth smirked.

"What are the Seven?" Athena questioned.

"The next Great Prophecy." Hazel told her monotonously, as if she'd said it about a million times.

"So it's completed? Who was the Prophecy Child?" Zeus asked.

Everyone turned to Percy, who smiled sheepishly. "Guilty."

"What's the next one?" Hestia asked, trying to avoid outbursts from the rest of her family.

"_Seven Half-Bloods Shall Answer the Call_

_To Storm or Fire the World Must Fall_

_An Oath to Keep With Final Breath_

_And Foes Bear Arms to the Doors of Death_." the demigods said in perfect unison as if they had rehearsed it.

The gods gaped, but the demigods were desperate to move on.

Next came a burly girl with stringy brown hair and pig eyes that glared at everyone and everything. She wore a ripped red shirt and ripped jeans with tennis shoes, and seemed to glow slightly red. "Clarisse La Rue, Daughter of Ares, Drakon Slayer, Sailor of the Sea of Monsters, Driver of Ares Chariot, Wanderer of the Labyrinth, Hero of Olympus, Girlfriend of Chris Rodriguez." Everyone gaped once again and Young Clarisse shouted "HADES YEAH!"

Next came a boy with bright blonde hair, a dazzling smile, and blue eyes. He wore a shirt that had a sun on it, faded jeans, and had a bow slung across his back. He grinned. He wore bright gold tennis shoes." Will Solace, Son of Apollo, Hero of Olympus." He grinned cheekily at them, and Apollo beamed happily.

After Will came a girl with long black hair a leaf green eyes that seemed somewhat earthy. She was wearing a 'Save the Planet' T-Shirt and Cargo pants, smiling warmly at everyone. She also wore brown converses. "Katie Gardner, Daughter of Demeter, Hero of Olympus, Girlfriend of Travis Stoll." Young Travis and Katie blushed, and Demeter smiled.

Next came two boys, one that looked older than the other, with curly brown hair and wearing red shirts that said, 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2' with jeans and magic flying shoes. They had a sort of elfish face that screamed trouble. They smiled "Travis and Conner Stoll, Sons of Hermes, Heroes of Olympus, Travis over there's the Boyfriend of Katie Gardner." Travis blushed at the last comment and Hermes smiled brightly at his children, while the younger Stolls high-fived.

Next came up a boy with curly brown hair and elfish features like the last two, wearing an orange T-shirt and jeans. He smiled. "Chris Rodriguez, Son of Hermes, Wanderer of the Labyrinth, Hero of Olympus, Boyfriend of Clarisse La Rue."

Next came a satyr with curly brown hair and brown eyes. He walked forward, seeming slightly nervous before getting out "Grover Underwood, Satyr, Sailor of the Sea of Monsters, Wanderer of the Labyrinth, Finder of Pan, Lord of the Wild, Hero of Olympus, best friend of Percy Jackson, Boyfriend of Juniper." Young Grover gaped.

A boy that seemed slightly like a Latino Santa elf with a green jacket, a yellow tool belt and jeans stepped forward. He smirked at everyone before waving his hand up into the air. "Hey everybody! Leo Valdez, Son of Hephaestus, Fire-user, One of the Seven, Hero of Olympus, and Supreme Commander of the Argo II at your service!" He did a mocking bow, and the next girl did a face-palm.

"Repair boy," she muttered, causing him to scowl. She was a beautiful Cherokee, and had choppy brown hair and gorgeous kaleidoscope eyes, and wore a blue ski jacket with skinny jeans and boots. She smiled brightly. "Piper McLean, Daughter of Aphrodite, Charm speaker, One of the Seven, Hero of Olympus, Girlfriend of Jason Grace" Apollo gave a wolf-whistle and Aphrodite smiled proudly at her beautiful daughter as she blushed.

A scrawny boy stepped forward; he had pale, greasy blonde hair and blue eyes and smiled cruelly at everyone. Some noticed he looked like… Luke. "Octavian, Legacy of Apollo, Augur of Camp Jupiter." No freaking comment.

:"Wait a minute, Romans and Greeks... together!?" Hermes asked, disbelief on his face.

"The future's messed up," The demigods said together.

"Wait, Romans?" Young Annabeth asked.

"Yup" the future demigods said cheerfully.

The next person stepped forward before they could ask anymore questions. She was quite tall, and had her dark black hair braided down her back. She had dark eyes and had her head held high, smiling. She wore a dark purple toga with medals pinned on it. "Reyna, Daughter of Bellona, Sailor of the Sea of Monsters, Praetor of the Twelfth Legion, Hero of Olympus."

The next was a Chinese/Canadian boy with a baby face and huge muscles that definitely didn't go together. He wore a blue sweatshirt and jeans and smiled shyly "Frank Zhang, Son of Mars, Legacy of Poseidon, Shape shifter, Defeater of Alycloneus, One of the Seven, Hero of Olympus, Boyfriend of Hazel Levesque," Everyone gaped when he said shape shifter.

The next girl had long curly red hair, glowing green eyes, and freckles dancing over her nose. She wore a 'Go Green' T-shirt and a pair of paint splattered skinny jeans that strangely enough had writing all over them, along with green converses. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Oracle of Delphi, Wanderer of the Labyrinth, Hero of Olympus."

Apollo jumped up. "MY ORACLE GETS A NEW BODY!" He grinned like a maniac, and Rachel blushed.

The remaining demigods exchanged nervous glances.

"Well? Introduce yourselves!" Zeus demanded.

They glanced at each other again, before pushing forward Thalia. "Why me!?" she asked nervously.

"They already know about you!" Percy reason, leaving everyone confused. What did he mean? "Now go!"

She had spiky black hair, electric blue eyes that seemed to electrocute you, and a few freckles on her nose. In her hair was a silver tiara, and she was glowing slightly silver. She had a silver parka, and skinny jeans with hiking boots, and looked pretty athletic like she ran around all day. "Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus, Lieutenant Huntress of Artemis, Hero of Olympus." She smiled as everyone gaped.

"But you're a tree!" Luke, who the older demigods hadn't noticed, shouted. The older demigod's faces darkened at the sight of him.

"Percy saved me after someone poisoned me." At someone, she looked pointedly at Luke, while everyone stared.

"Thank you, young hero." Zeus said to Percy, causing everyone to gawk. "What, I pay my debts... sometimes."

The last four looked at each other, coming to a silent agreement. "You have to swear on the River Styx you won't vaporize us when we tell you who we are." Percy demanded in such a powerful voice it was almost like charm speak. The gods agreed.

Nico stepped forward. He had longish black hair, olive skin, and an aviator's jacket with a long black sword at his side. His eyes were so black it was spooky. "Nico Di Angelo, Son of Hades, Wandered of the Labyrinth, Ambassador of Pluto, Ghost King, Hero of Olympus, but my dad didn't break the oath because I was kept in the Lotus Hotel and Casino."

"It's still illegal because Zeus said to kill you." Percy mumbled, but was ignored.

The next girl had cocoa skin, curly hair, and bright golden eyes. She had a slightly innocent look to her and couldn't have been any older than thirteen. She wore a golden T-Shirt and jeans with grey converse. "Hazel Levesque, Daughter of Pluto, One of the Seven, Hero of Olympus, Girlfriend of Frank Zhang."

Zeus was about to open his mouth, but was interrupted by Hades saying. "But... you're dead!"

Everyone gaped. "You'll find out later." She muttered weakly, and Frank put an arm around her shoulders.

The next boy had sky blue eyes and cropped blonde hair with a scar on his upper lip. He had a slight air of authority, and wore a T-shirt that said 'I got the power!' He was well-built and muscled, and smiled smugly before starting "Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter, Killer of the Trojan Sea Monster, Slayer of Krios, One of the Seven, Hero of Olympus, and Boyfriend of Piper McLean." He smirked as everyone stared, while Reyna scowled at the boyfriend thing.

Before Hades or Poseidon could yell, the next boy stepped forward. He had vibrant, gorgeous yet powerful sea green eyes that held a huge amount of love, tousled, windswept raven black locks, -not 'I've never seen a comb hair', but 'I just finished showering hair'-, a perfect tan, faultless features, and a six pack that was visible even though it was obvious he didn't try to show it. He was at least six feet, and seemed to give of an aura of power, trust, and kindness. He was obviously very athletic like he spent his days fighting monsters. He looked extremely hot, but innocent at the same time, but you could tell by his eyes he'd seen lots of sadness. He was wearing a navy blue T-shirt with a striped jacket and blue jeans with black converses. The way the light glinted behind him gave him the flawless look of an angel with his striking features and handsome face, yet you could tell he was more than just a pretty boy. He smiled a dazzling white smile, revealing a rebellious, troublemaker smile. "Ok, just a warning, this may take a while." The others who knew him nodded, while the goddesses continued to stare, yet the boy remained obliviously innocent. "Okay, so Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon," the gods gasped. "Defeater of the Furies and the Minotaur twice, Retriever of Zeus's bolt and Hades Helm, Defeater of Ares, Sailor of the Sea of Monsters, Defeater of the Hydra, Retriever of the Golden Fleece, Defeater of the Nemean Lion, Bearer of the sky, Defeater of Anteaus, Wanderer of the Labyrinth, Defeater of Phobos and Deimos, Retriever of Ares Chariot, Retriever of the Sword of Hades, ex-holder of the Curse of Achilles, Defeater of a whole butt-load of monsters, Child of the Prophecy, Defeater of Atlas, Iapetus, Hyperion, and Kronos, Defeater of Cacus, Retriever of Hermes Caduceus, Defeater of Polybotes, One of the Seven, Hero of Olympus, Boyfriend of Annabeth Chase." He paused for breath, "That's it, right?" he asked, oblivious to all the stares he was getting. Luke glared. Poseidon beamed at his son. Jason scowled at the fact that he was beaten.

Annabeth smiled at his cluelessness. "You forgot that you're a Seaweed Brain."

Percy grinned, "Well you forgot you're a Wise Girl." They had just started kissing when Thalia shouted. "WARNING! CHILDREN PRESENT!" and they broke apart, blushes just beginning to creep onto their faces.

"Young demigods?" Zeus questioned, still stunned by Percy.

"Travis and Conner Stoll, Sons of Hermes." The Stolls high-fived their younger counterparts..

"Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena." The Stolls wiggled their eyebrows at Percy who gave them his deluxe 'I'll kill you later' stare. They had to get new pants, which thankfully, they had extras. They got that look a lot.

"Clarisse La Rue, Daughter of Ares."

"Chris Rodriguez, Son of Hermes."

"Charlie Beckendorf, Son of Hephaestus." The future demigods saddened. Percy clenched his fists looking down and Annabeth hugged him from behind.

"Silena Beauregard, Daughter of Aphrodite." More sorrow. Clarisse looked down and Chris grabbed her hand.

"Luke Castellan, Son of Hermes." Cue glares. Annabeth put a hand on Percy's shoulder to restrain him, but no one noticed. They still hadn't truly forgiven him.

"Grover Underwood, Satyr." Everyone grinned at their friend.

"Katie Gardner, Daughter of Demeter."

"Will Solace Son of Apollo."

"Ethan Nakamura, Unclaimed." Percy stared at his toes and the demigods glanced at him sympathetically. Ethan saved his life and died for it.

"Lee Fletcher, Son of Apollo" More grief.

"Michael Yew, Son of Apollo" Percy felt like collapsing. The only thing keeping him stable right now was Annabeth's arms around him.

"Castor and Pollux, Sons of Dionysus." Even sadder. Percy was shaking at this point.

"Is that all." The demigods nodded. Zeus snapped his fingers and couches appeared, four people per couch. Annabeth, Percy, Thalia and Nico sat on one. Reyna, Leo, Jason, and Piper. Will, Katie, Travis, Conner. Clarisse, Chris, Hazel Frank. Rachel, Grover, and Octavian on the last one.

"Wait..." Nico interrupted. "Where are the books?"

"Probably the box" Athena said, being the goddess of wisdom she is.

At that moment, it seemed as if the box shook. Everyone jumped on their couch. The demigods glanced at each other, before pushing Percy forward and off the couch.

"Hey! Why me?"

They glanced at each other before deadpanning. "You're Percy."

Percy scowled, muttering about worthless friends, but approached the box nonetheless.

BOOM!

At the moment he touched it, out popped a...

A kid.

The boy seemed to be about seven, was wearing a long sleeved navy blue jacket, and a bright blue shirt. He had worn jeans and dirty shoes, and extremely messy, gravity defying yet adorable jet black hair. He seemed sort of small and underfed, but still pretty freaking adorable. He looked at Percy with big, innocent, sea-green doe eyes. "Who are you? You look like an older me! Are you my brother? I always wanted a brother. Are you gonna beat up Gabe?" Percy put a hand over the boy's mouth, but his eyes were wide.

"Hey Perce, do you have a brother?" Thalia asked, wondering if Percy had lied about being an only child too.

Percy swallowed. "No..." he looked at them all. "It's seven year old me."

Suddenly, older Percy's hand withdrew quickly as if he'd been hit, and young Percy shouted. "You're me? Awesome, I look like a freaking superhero!"

"You licked me!" Older Percy exclaimed.

Young Percy smirked. "Well you are me, so no harm done." Everyone snickered.

"Whoa! Giant people! Hey!" he pointed at Annabeth, "She has pretty princess hair!" older Percy and both Annabeths blushed. "And..." he trailed off, looking directly at Poseidon "Dad." It wasn't a question.

Poseidon smiled. "Percy."

Young Percy's face broke out into a grin, ignoring the surprised looks of the other gods over the fact he recognized his dad, as he sprinted straight into his dad's arms, hugging him. Poseidon stiffened, not used to hugs, before hugging back.

"I knew you cared. I knew Gabe was wrong." He mumbled into Poseidon's chest. Poseidon smiled slightly.

Suddenly, young Percy backed up. "You... you left us with Gabe..."

"Percy-"

Percy continued backing up, shaking his head, lower lip trembling. "You left us. You left me and mom and now we..." he trailed of, and his voice cracked.

"Percy, I'm sorry. I do care, but..." he looked at the gods for a moment before looking back. "What do you know about the Greek Gods?"

Percy looked at him warily. "Yeah, mom tells me stories all the time..." he looked down. "Like how you guys named me Persues so I'd have a happy ending like him..." he looked down, before looking back at his dad. "Why?"

"Because their real. And I'm Poseidon. I had to leave because I had to make sure the seas were under control." he said, gazing sadly at Percy.

"Oh..." Percy sighed. He found his shoes interesting all of a sudden. Older Percy gazed at him sympathetically; he knew what was going on at home now that would make him feel that way.

"Well this is awkward." Hades broke the silence, and everyone turned to him. "What?"

"YOU RUINED A BONDING MOMENT YOU IDIOT!" Hera screeched, causing everyone to cover their ears in order to keep their hearing.

Percy stepped forward. "Hey Little Me? What did you just get expelled for, and what kind of school?"

Little Percy blushed. "My second military school… blew up the gym playing basketball." he mumbled, embarrassed.

"Yup, you're seven." Percy grinned cheekily.

"How does a seven year old blow up a military school gym while playing basketball?" Reyna asked.

"Reyna, this is Percy we're talking about." Hazel said, and everyone laughed.

After explaining everything to Little Percy, aka, P.J. who was currently sitting next to Poseidon on a couch, everyone got comfy and ready to read. But first…

Flash!

A bright light flared up, taking up the whole room, seemingly around Percy, and leaving behind a note.

Annabeth picked it up.

_Dear people,_

_Okay, we decided to spice this up a little bit. From now on, whatever Percy feels in the books, will be felt by Percy now. Don't worry, it will only be older Percy, we just thought it would be cool for you to see first-hand what happened. Sorry favorite demigod._

_From,_

_The Awesomest god Apollo (Who didn't agree to this)_

_The Fates_

_P.S. –Sorry about a few… people coming. Good luck in the future. You'll need_ _it._

Everyone gasped, wondering how someone could be so cruel. They all knew Percy felt a lot of pain, and definitely didn't want him to feel it again. Annabeth's hands were shaking, Thalia and Nico felt their eyes watering, the gods were gaping like fish, the younger demigods were trembling, Hazel's eyes were closed, Frank was in shock, Reyna's breath hitched, and everyone's reactions varied.

But none took it worse than Percy.

It's pretty obvious why he didn't like it. Currently, he had his knees up to his chest, arms around his knees, face paler than Nico's and Hades. He was trembling, his fists clenched together, his head on his knees, feeling like he was going to cry. Annabeth quickly wrapped an arm around his shoulders, trying to calm him down.

"Percy, it's going to be okay... You won't die just... hurt."

"Nice pep talk," Thalia mumbled, trying to break the tension, which didn't work for anyone, even herself.

Percy swallowed. "Let's..." his voice cracked, "Let's get this over with." He paused. "What are the book titles?"

"The Lightning Thief," Percy, Annabeth and Grover winced, "The Sea of Monsters." More wincing, Clarisse included this time. "The Titans Curse," Percy and Nico paled, and Annabeth put a hand on Percy's arm, gripping it tightly while Thalia patted Nico's shoulder awkwardly, while Thalia and Grover winced too, "The Battle of the Labyrinth." More winces. "And the Last Olympian." At this point, Percy's eyes were closed tight and Annabeth was hugging him tight. This was bad for them to remember. "The Demigod Files-"

"Excuse me, what?" Katie asked, looking at Percy and Annabeth, before raising an eyebrow. "What's this?"

Percy had a quizzical look on his face too. "Hand it over." Zeus grumbled at be commanded to do something, but did. "The Stolen Chariot," Percy smirked and Clarisse glared. "The Sword of Hades," Thalia, Nico, and Percy exchanged looks, while the gods looked at Hades, "And the Bronze Dragon," Leo grinned, while Percy and Annabeth paled.

"Uh-oh…" Percy mumbled, looking at Thalia and Nico. "Keres poison…" they paled to, remembering when Percy got cut.

"That's gonna stink…" Nico muttered and Thalia whacked him.

"Wait, what?" Annabeth asked.

"Let's just move on!" Percy exclaimed, still really pale. He handed the books to Zeus.

"The Demigod Diaries," the demigods understood these were mini-quests "The Lost Hero," everyone glared at Hera, while Jason smiled, people would hear his adventures, "The Son of Neptune," Percy, Hazel, and Frank high fived, "And the Mark of Athena." The demigods looked confused.

"Huh?"

"That's the future Giant War?" Annabeth suggested. The others shrugged.

"Then there's the House of Hades…" everyone looked confused.

"Still future?" Annabeth suggested again. Everyone just nodded.

Zeus nodded, and started reading. "The Lightning Thief..."

**How was it? Good? Bad? Review and tell me****. Flames are also welcome to help me improve my writing. Next chapter will be dedicated to the first person who can guess which book the first line of haiku came from. **


	2. Vaporized Teachers

**Hi, I'm back*waves*. Thanks for the reviews. This chapter is dedicated to One . Direction . Percy . Jackson . 27 for being the first to answer my question. Suggestions are welcome. Should I bring in Sally and Paul? Go to my profile and vote now! **

**And school's starting tomorrow so I won't be able to update often cause there's this huge exam coming up, so yeah… Anyway, I'll do my best to update and hopefully be able to speed up after the exam. **

**Just-AWESOME-old-me: Hestia was observing younger Percy because he had captured her interest. **

**Currently listening to Taylor Swift: I knew you were trouble**

**Disclaimer: Percy and the gang do not belong to me. They belong to Rick Riordan. Parts of this story belong to PercyJacksonObsession. Don't forget to check out her stories.**

Just as Zeus was about to start reading, a bright light flashed before fading and leaving behind four people. Everyone recognized them immediately, they were none other than the Heroes of the Old, Perseus, Hercules, Orion and Theseus. They stood proudly before bowing to the gods.

The demigod's stared at them, as they looked up, and looked at them curiously.

Hercules stepped forward, thinking he was the greatest hero ever. "Father? Who are they? Do you need our aid once again? Why are these younger demigods here?" He asked, staring at them

The Gods exchanged looks, as the demigods began muttering amongst themselves. What the heck were these bozos doing here?

"Heroes of Greece" Zeus started, finally coming to a decision "It seems as if the Fates wish for you to read with us." He said. He then proceeded to go down the lines of names, and explaining the whole predicament, not giving the titles for they wanted to surprise them all about Percy.

"… So, why don't you tell your names to the demigods?" Zeus finished, and the Heroes exchanged looks, before nodding.

First came Orion. "Orion, Son of Poseidon, and… well, you know the rest…" he said smugly, winking at Artemis, causing her and Apollo to glare.

Next came Theseus, "Theseus, Son of Poseidon, you should know my tale as well," Dionysus and Percy glared. Dionysus knew what he did to his wife, Adrianne. Percy glared, reminded of the time Dionysus told him the story.

"Perseus, Son of Zeus." Percy smiled slightly, thankfully out of that funk thanks to the surprise of the heroes popping up, but frowned at the smugness of the man's voice.

"And Hercules, Son of Zeus," It took almost all the demigods to restrain Percy, and Apollo had to restrain Artemis from killing him as well. Hercules blinked; surprised someone would want to hurt him. P.J. was staring at them all, surprised.

"Percy, look at me-"Annabeth started, grabbing the sides of his smooth tan face so his gorgeous sea-green orbs would meet her intense grey ones. "She's dead. I know he's a selfish, annoying, egoistical-" she shook her head, snapping herself out of her insult rant, "But you can't get back at him for what he did to Zoe."

Percy sighed, looking down and swallowing, before nodding, but glaring harshly at Hercules who had paled when he heard Zoe's name. Hercules winced at Percy's extremely scary glare, almost peeing his pants. The futures knew that Percy was giving one of his worst, 'You mess with my friends, I mess up your face' glare, which was just about his scariest in his alignment of glares.

"Zoe? Zoe Nightshade?" Artemis asked, snapped out of her struggle to attack Hercules when he said that. "You know her?"

Percy looked her sadly in the eyes, and nodded, green orbs looking depressed. "Yeah…" He said his voice soft. "I knew her…" he trailed off, and the gods decided it wasn't a good time to talk about it.

Zeus cleared his throat. "Well…" he paused awkwardly, glancing at Percy."Let's begin then..."

**I ACCIDENTLY VAPORISE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER, **Zeus started.

"Tsk,tsk shame on you Percy, just because you don't like your pre-algebra teacher doesn't mean you can vaporize her," Nico lightening the mood.

"It was an accident! I swear!" Percy exclaimed, causing everyone to snicker.

"Yeah like we'll actually believe you," Thalia joked. Percy did the 'mature' thing and stuck out his tongue at her.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Why would you?" Chris asked, causing the older demigods to nod sadly, as the younger ones stared at them thinking, 'What happened?'

P.J. asked the question "What happened?" he asked bluntly.

The futures automatically looked down sadly, closing their eyes tight, and Percy clenched his fists as the others glanced at him sympathetically. He was the center of this after all.

Percy currently had an emotionless expression on his face, looking down at his hands, eyes closed as he relived the many battles of the war. His knuckles were white and he was shaking slightly, hands gripping the couch tightly. Annabeth worriedly put a hand on his shoulder, and he smiled at her, grateful for her just being there, especially with the books curse and the next war coming.

The old heroes stared at them. What did happen to make them react this way?

Jason scowled, wanting to get his jealousy out any way he could, turning to P.J. "Are you an idiot?" he asked P.J., who glared. He was tired of being called that at school because he couldn't read as well as other kids in his grade, and by Gabe.

"No, but obviously you are since your stooping so low as to pick on a mere seven year old when you're fifteen." He snapped, and Jason glared as everyone else snickered. The younger Stolls high-fived him.

"I like little you." Clarisse laughed, and Percy flashed a pearly white smile at her, as everyone else glared at Jason while snickering, mad he picked on P.J., but laughing because P.J. got back at hm.

"I like the kid!" Hermes grinned, as Apollo nodded in agreement.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

"No! Unless you plan on getting killed don't ever listen to Percy's advice, unless it's a battle plan or an emotional speech" Nico exclaimed. Making those who didn't understand stare at him as if he was mad.

The others would have defended Percy, who was pouting cutely, making him look innocent and adorable (both of them), if it wasn't for the fact that it was one hundred percent true.

"He does give good emotional speeches though…" Frank added, think back to the time Percy told him they needed him. Percy grinned at him for the support.

**close this book right now.**

The Stolls jumped onto Zeus lap, grabbed the book, and shut it tight, before flinging it across the room, only to hit Octavian in the face, sliding of his greasy hair and onto Leo, who almost set it on fire but thanks to Percy's awesome fireproof powers and water abilities, it survived, however, was sent flying into the air, hitting the Stolls who had been electrocuted by Zeus and sent flying, sending it in the direction of Hercules, who bat it away towards Hazel, who screamed and made a jewel come up so it hit Luke, who punched it with a fist, which missed, so it hit his shoulder, bouncing of onto Silena's lap, who gave a yelp and sent it flying towards Hephaestus's face, but it was repelled by his ugliness and landed back open on the page on Zeus's lap.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" Percy, Apollo, Hermes, P.J, both Stolls, Chris, Leo, and Nico shouted, laughing their head off. Thalia rolled her eyes, whacking Percy on the back of the head, who just laughed harder, nudging her with his shoulder so she laughed, as Jason stared on jealously. It was his sister. Young Annabeth gaped. Thalia wasn't so close to anyone, not even her. Meanwhile, Leo was whacked by Piper, and the Stoll's went wobbling to their chairs from the impact of the wall they had made by Zeus's electricity, only to be whacked by Katie.

**Believe whatever your lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Not bad," Athena admitted grudgingly, as everyone gaped at her. "What! It's true! It might actually work."

Percy took this chance while she was in a good mood. "Do you approve of me and Annabeth's relationship?" Percy pleaded with a sudden burst of confidence, with big puppy dog eyes. Athena looked away from the adorable face, while everyone gaped at the adorableness.

"Well, I haven't vaporized you, have I?" Athena said, not looking at his face so she wouldn't have to admit the face worked, even thought it was obvious. The gods gaped. No one could convince Athena by looks. But even Artemis wanted to run up and hug him with the big, innocent sea-green eyes, watering slightly, his lower lip trembling.

Percy's face broke out into a grin. "HADES YEAH!" He exclaimed, and Annabeth rolled her eyes, kissing his cheek. The goddesses and girl demigods cooed, as the younger demigods went 'eeww'. Percy smiled even wider, wrapping his arms around her as she sat on his lap, leaning into his warm chest.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

"Yup..," The demigods muttered. The gods winced.

"Is it really that bad?"

**It's scary.**

"That's the understatement of the century," Will commented.

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful and nasty ways. **

"And check," Percy said flinching slightly as he remembered his friends that were killed in that manner. Annabeth curled up into him more attempting to provide comfort. Percy smiled down at her grateful for the support.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great.**

"Why would a mortal be reading this," Hermes asked. Athena shrugged "How am I supposed to know." Ares gasped "The great Athena not knowing something!?" he mocked. Athena's eyes narrowed and with a snap of her fingers she sent a flock of owls to attack Ares.

OW! OW! OW!" "Athena, call your owls off your brother, Ares apologize to your sister," Hera scolded. They scowled but reluctantly did as told.

**Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. **

"None of what?" Apollo asked. Artemis whacked her brother's head "The events in the books you idiot!" Apollo was reply but Zeus cut in "Can you stop interrupting me and let me read!?" he exclaimed. *silence….* "Yes? Good, thank you."

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

You make it sound like someone's gonna kill you," Apollo snickered but the demigods just replied with…

"There's always someone." Needless to say, the snickering stopped.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn us." The Stolls, Leo, and Nico chirped, only to be doused immensely by water, sputtering and coming face to face with to angry Percys.

Percy raised an eyebrow and P.J. followed suit. The offenders gulped. No one wants any Percy induced wrath.

Percy, arms still crossed, sat back down with Annabeth on his lap, P.J by his side, Thalia snickering as Nico glanced warily at Percy, who turned to him to give him one last warning.

"I'm still mad that you didn't remind me who I was." Percy said, and Nico swallowed. Percy gestured for Zeus to continue.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**"**No. It's Zeus." Hermes smirked at the same time the Percys both yelled. "NO! I'M PERCY JACKSON!" and grinned at the likeness of each other. Some things never change**.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

"One boarding school of many." Percy added, sighing.

P.J. looked at him. "Better than staying home though, right?" he asked referring to something they had never told anyone else, not even their mother. Percy winced, and agreed.

The futures stared at him in shock. He loved his mother, so why would he say he wouldn't like going home and would rather be at boarding school? They looked at seven year old Percy, suddenly seeing a few deep cuts and bruises, the fact that he kept tugging his jacket, wincing when he moved every so often, how he made sure to hide certain parts of his face with his messy hair, the way he flinched before making contact with people, the skinniness of him. Maybe Percy had been hiding something from them.

They came to an abrupt realization. Percy had never told them about his childhood. They always knew his mom was awesome; they spent the night at his house often. But whenever they would ask for stories from his youth to cheer them up since they all had bad pasts, he'd get a tortured look in his eyes and immediately change the subject. So what was with the injuries? Bullies? That had to be it. At least, they hoped.

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yep!" the demigods chirped, Jason and Luke the loudest causing the others to glare at their happiness with the insult. Luke and Jason scowled, why did everyone love Percy?

The Percys, meanwhile, only shrugged. It was true, he was troubled. His life was, anyways.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"You agree!" Hermes laughed, and the gods looked at him weirdly, along with the heroes. Percy rolled his eyes.

"I never said I didn't." he said, laughing as Hermes huffed and crossed his arms like a child.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it,**

"Short?" The gods asked, and the demigods winced.

"Miserable?" The heroes asked, causing the demigods to wince again. Percy nodded.

"I most likely won't see my seventeenth birthday at this rate…" he mumbled, and Annabeth squeezed his hand. The gods and heroes stared at him as Poseidon hyperventilated over his favorite son dying.

Nico, in attempt to cheer them up, grinned and said. "You'll live alright. You're Percy Jackson, you can't die! I mean, you did barge in on your own funeral." He said, and the god, young demigods, and heroes stared at Percy in shock, as he laughed.

"The looks on your faces when I did that!" he laughed some more, and Annabeth scowled at the memory. She whacked his head, but he didn't wince, even without the curse of Achilles.

"We thought you were dead, Seaweed Brain! It wasn't funny!" she snapped, and Percy rolled his eyes.

"I'm here now." He grinned, and gave Annabeth a peck on the lips, as she immediately brightened, and young Annabeth and P.J. blushed.

P.J., meanwhile, was wondering if his future self was mentally stable. Walking in on your own funeral? Awkward

**But things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, **

"Actually it's a demigod, a satyr, a centaur, twenty-eight mental case students and a psycho teacher," Grover corrected.

**heading to the Metropolitan****Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"That sounds wonderful!" Annabeth and Athena said, eyes gleaming. They smiled at each other.

"No, sounds like torture," Percy, P.J., Poseidon, Theseus, and Orion said, Percy, P.J, and Poseidon smiling while Theseus and Orion scowled thinking about Percy's thoughts being like theirs. Annabeth whacked Percy in the back of the head.

**I know-it sounds like torture.**

"Well… he did say he was mental-cased!" Dionysus suggested to a fuming Athena, as everyone else stared at him in shock. "What, I'm the god of insanity. When I hear those words, I listen!" he snapped, going back to his 'Wine Weekly'.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

"True." Grover and Percy said, fist bumping each other. P.J and Young Grover smiled at each other, happy to finally have a friend.

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

"Hades yeah!" Percy and Grover pumped a fist in the air, and Annabeth rolled her eyes, muttering about Percy being a Seaweed brain, cuddling into his chest. Poseidon chuckled at his son.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

Chiron perked up. This man sounded like him. Percy was powerful, so perhaps he made a house-call. The other demigods were thinking the same thing.

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool,**

"Hey!" Chiron huffed, and Percy smiled at his mentor.

"Don't worry. You're the best teacher ever. Like a second father. You're a better teacher than my step-father, even." Percy grinned, and Poseidon mouthed 'thank you' to Chiron for being there for his son, who smiled at Poseidon and beamed at Percy.

Meanwhile, P.J. had a thought. "Step-Father? Gabe actually gets off his lazy butt for something other than making my life miserable?" He asked Percy, who flinched at the reminder of his old step-father.

"Nope. New Step-Father. His name's Paul. An English teacher." Poseidon frowned out of jealousy, and P.J. jumped from the couch, grinning like a maniac.

"Gabe's gone! Gabe's gone!" he did a cute little happy dance, causing the goddesses to coo, before turning back to Percy. "Just… poof?"

"Poof."

"Poof?"

"Poof."

"Poof?"

"Poo-"

"WE GET IT! HE WENT POOF!" Hades shouted, annoyed. Leo and the Stolls snickered.

"He said poo." Everyone rolled their eyes at their immaturity.

Meanwhile, the futures were thinking again. Percy never mentioned Gabe. And making his life miserable? This was raising suspicions.

**but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Hey look it's Chiron!" Leo shouted the other's rolled their eyes. Piper whacked his head "No dib Repair Boy."

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hopep that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. **

Not gonna happen." Hazel, Frank, Clarisse, Rachel, Grover, Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico scoffed at him.

"Hey!" Percy shouted, and they rolled their eyes.

"We've been on a quest with you." Hazel told him seriously. "You always cause trouble."

"Prove it." Percy said, glaring.

"Glacier, Phineas, Hyperboreans, Lanstrogi-"

"Fine, fine." Percy sighed, and the others looked smug.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

"As always…" Rachel chimed, and Percy turned to her.

"Not you too!" he whined, pouting. She smirked.

"Name a time you were right, and I'll be on your side." She said, hands on her hips, legs crossed towards the ground as she leaned back in anticipation.

Percy narrowed his eyes. "Anteaus." He said, referring to his plan to beat him. Rachel paled, remembering that was her fault in the first place.

"Never mind," she said, as Poseidon paled. Percy was going to meet his other son?

**See, bad things happen to me on fields trip. Like at my fifth -grade school, we when to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon.**

"Accident?" everyone asked. Percy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"War!" Ares and the Clarisses screamed at the same time, and everyone rolled their eyes.

**I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway**.

Silence. And then…

Everyone burst out laughing. A few even fell onto the floor with laughter. They really like this kid and his rebelliousness.

"He has to be, like, a legacy of me." Hermes and Apollo said at the same time. "He'd be an awesome descendant." They stared at each other. "Stop that!" they snapped. "No you! Just- You- URGH!" Everyone laughed harder.

Percy, while laughing, was thoughtful. Didn't Iris say something about being a part of both Greek and Roman? And how he could already speak Latin?

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. **

Everyone laughed even harder at that, but Percy looked thoughtful "I get it..." he murmured. Annabeth overheard him and looked at him curiously "Get what Seaweed Brain?" she asked. "Why the sharks didn't attack us when we fell in and why I could hear voices in my head saying son of the sea god, my lord." Everyone burst out laughing again when they heard that. "Hey, it's not funny! I thought I gone mad." Naturally, that statement just made them laugh harder.

**And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.**

"Aww…" everyone, even Athena and Dionysus, whined. They enjoyed Percy's rebelliousness and awesome pranking skills.

"Percy rolled his eyes. "I'm sure there's more later," he said, and everyone grinned. "And if there isn't, me and P.J. will tell you some other stories." He added as an afterthought, and everyone grinned more.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"Percy, you just jinxed it!" exclaimed Katie with a shake of her head. "Strawberry Shortcake's right, you shouldn't had said that" commented Nico. "Strawberry Shortcake? Seriously, Nico ? Can't you come up with a better nickname than that?" Thalia remarked. "But why Strawberry Shortcake?" questioned Percy. Nico blushed "Well, that cause Katie is almost always in the strawberry fields, so yeah….." "Oh….."

**All the way into the city, I put with Nancy Bobofit**

Percy made a growling noise at the back of his throat, at the mention of 'her'. He hated it when people messed with his friends.

**the ** **freckly, red headed kleptomaniac girl, **

"Hey, she sounds like Rachel" joked Will. "Nah…. Nancy's a lot uglier," Grover said. Rachel blinked, "Is that an insult or a compliment?" "Compliment," Percy said cheerfully.

**hitting my best friend Grover**

Younger Grover looked shocked "I'm your best friend?" Percy shook his head, "We're not friends, we're best friends G-man!" PJ nodded, "I may not have known you for long time but you're a really great guy. "The Grovers grinned "Thanks Perce," they chorused. "Anytime G-man, anytime."

**in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

Aprodite looked disgusted "EWW! Who could even eat that. I mean other than 'her' of course." There was mummers of agreement throughout the room.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. **

"Hey!" Both of the Grovers protested," "Well, it's true. Besides you don't looked like that anymore" Percy replied sheepishly.

**He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin.**

Grover winced "I looked horrible back then didn't I?" Needless to say, none of them could look at him in the eye.

**On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. **

"Wow! That's so cool! No PE forever!" shouted Leo. Piper promptly whacked his head "Repair Boy" she mumbled. Percy snorted "Hey Thals, does Leo remind you of anyone?" Thalia snickered "That was my first impression." Seeing the confused and curious looks that everyone was giving them, they explained "Leo is just as hyper as Nico." They blinked, as they tried to imagine the image of a hyper Nico and not the brooding emo-like Son of Hades.

**He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day at the cafeteria. **

"Goat Boy!" Thalia exclaimed while whacking his head "You could have blown your cover." Grover looked sheepish "I know, but the enchiladas were really great."

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back at her because I was already on probation. **

"What did you do this time?" Katie asked him, eyebrow raised.

"Oh… lemme think… that was… Oh yeah, fireworks display in the gym. Didn't work out very well…" Percy trailed off, and the Stolls high fived him.

"Awesome dude!" Leo and The Stolls exclaimed, and Luke and Jason scowled. They're supposed to be the coolest. Piper stared at Percy weirdly. Annabeth wasn't kidding when she said Percy got into a lot of trouble.

"What are fireworks?" Theseus asked. Everyone ignored him.

**The headmaster had threatened me with death**

"What!" Poseidon yelled. "They dare-" Zeus continued before he could finish.

**by in-school suspension**

"Oh…" Poseidon mumbled, and Zeus snickered at him.

"DEATH!" Hades and Nico chuckled sadistically, and everyone looked at them weirdly.

**if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Seriously?" The gods, heroes, and demigods asked. Percy nodded.

"Yeah. I could've been freeing Death in Alaska and they would've expelled me if someone spilled their coffee at Starbucks." Percy said with an eye roll, as the Romans -excluding Jason- cracked up. Everyone looked at them weirdly.

"It's funny, because he did that." Frank pointed out, and everyone stared at Percy in shock. He meanwhile, was glaring at nothing.

"Why do people blame me? Everyone does it!" he huffed, and Annabeth kissed him on the cheek.

"Because you're so awesome you could get away with it." She said, pulling him in for a kiss. Thalia pushed their chests apart.

"Once again. CHILDREN PRESENT!" She snapped, and they blushed again.

**"****I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it!" Ares and the Clarisses shouted, as the Stolls, Leo, Nico, Apollo, and Hermes shouted "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" Needless to say, they got whacked.

"Whipped." Percy and Poseidon muttered. They got whacked too by a certain goddess of wisdom and her daughter.

Artemis, meanwhile, was thoughtful. "You'd hit a girl?" She asked, eyebrow raised.

Percy shrugged. "Depends, really. If they were being a bully to my friend or were evil then yes, I would. I mean, you'd hit Gaea, wouldn't you?" Percy asked, "But otherwise, no. Girls aren't meant to be hit. Which is why I am willing to hit Clarisse." He smirked, and the Clarisses and Ares let out a growl, while Artemis stared at him in awe. He isn't like other boys… she thought to herself, smiling with pride along with Hera and Hestia.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"Not as much as Tyson." Percy added, and the futures laughed, as Frank yelled. "PEANUT BUTTER!"

Annabeth turned to him. "How did you-"

"-know his battle cry? We had a battle at Camp Jupiter and won, thanks to Percy over there." He grinned cheekily, before turning to Percy. "Didn't we Mr. I'm gonna shove a god up your nose?" he asked, and Percy blushed and muttered something.

"What was that?" Frank asked.

"I said zip it you Chinese Canadian Baby Man." Percy snapped, and Frank blushed as everyone laugh. Hazel giggled.

"Oh, Arion," she said, and the Romans laughed harder.

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat**.

"Aww!" The Clarisses and Ares said, and the others rolled their eyes. "No action…"

Meanwhile, the Stolls stared at him in awe. "You actually held Percy back! MIRACLE WORKER!" They hugged Grover, who blushed while Percy rolled his eyes.

**"****You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

"Me…" the Percys said miserably, and the demigods snickered. It was true.

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"Mmhmm…. Nothing. Nothing can ever ever ever compare to this mess…" Percy nodded, agreeing with himself. The futures nodded to, and repeated the 'nothing'.

P.J. stared at them. "So… my life stinks then. That's a confidence booster." The Hermes and Apollo gangs snickered.

"Sarcasm until death." Nico laughed, and everyone turned to him "Percy's the sarcasm king, as you can see by his thoughts." Everyone nodded in understanding, as Percy rolled his eyes.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer," the gods said, and Percy rolled his eyes. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"I know that now!" he exclaimed, scowling, before he smiled smugly. "You just admitted your old."

The gods glared at him as the demigods laughed.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx**

Percy let out a low growl, and Annabeth scowled. Everyone stared at them.

"That sphinx hurt Tyson." Percy snarled, and everyone sighed. Percy was too protective of his friends.

"Overprotective," Thalia and Nico scoffed, and Percy sighed.

"Can't you guys not be annoying and be mean to me for five minutes?"

"Nope!" They piped up, and Percy glared at them.

**on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting,**

"Who are you and what have you done with Percy Jackson?" everyone who knew him asked, Annabeth scooting off his lap and staring at him fearfully, and he rolled his eyes.

"Is it so strange that I try learning for once?" he asked.

The others just nodded.

Percy sighed. "I care when someone dies, even if I don't know them." Percy said, and everyone else 'ah'ed in understanding.

**but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodd's, would give me the evil eye.**

"Jerk," Percy and Grover coughed, glaring at the book. Hades and Nico stared at it quizzically.

She sounds familiar… they thought

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia**

"Farther south than Georgia," Percy scoffed, and Grover snickered.

Could it be? Hades and Nico thought.

**who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

Suspicions confirmed. Hades and Nico thought, fearfully taking glances at Poseidon, in fear for how he'd react. Geez, how did Percy get out of this one?

"What did you do this time?" Thalia groaned. Percy held up his hands in surrender.

"It wasn't me!" he exclaimed.

No one believed him.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"That stinks," Young Silena said, and Percy smiled, though you could see the sadness in them as Annabeth grabbed his hand.

"Welcome to my world." He said sadly, and she looked at the older boy quizzically. Sure he was hot, but what was that sadness in his eyes? Why was it directed at her?

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Grover!" Annabeth snapped, and he blushed. "Sorry," he mumbled, and she rolled her eyes. "Calm down, Percy's just being Percy," she said as if it explained everything.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean? And why do you keep on saying that?" The demigods exchanged looks with each other, "Chris, the book please," Annabeth said holding out her hand expectantly, Chris nodded before taking out a book and tossing it over to Annabeth.

"Page two hundred and thirty" Annabeth said as she handed the book to Percy. Percy raised an eyebrow but accepted the book. Flipping to said page he read it, and as he read it his face steadily became redder and redder.

The others watched his reaction curiously, wondering why did he react that way. With a smirk Annabeth took the book out of his hand and read it out loud:

_**The demigod dictionary**_

_Percy to Polybotes _

_Percy Jackson Son of Poseidon, loyal, laid-back, reckless, sarcastic and capable of offending immortal beings in three words or less– a hero, leader, brother, crush, father figure and friend. Also well known for doing the impossible. _

_The definition of loyalty, sarcasm, ignorance, being clueless, blunt and rather silly. _

_Example 1: Please don't pull a Percy, it's too dangerous. _

_Example 2: You're such a Percy. _

Jason and Hercules scowled, why did Jackson get a definition but they didn't get one.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral , Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele,**

"She was totally wishing it were you." Grover muttered, and Percy blinked.

"What?" he asked, appalled.

Grover shrugged. "Dude, she had a huge crush on you. All the girls did." Percy stared at him awkwardly and Annabeth glared at Grover while the others snickered.

"They were always picking on me!" he said, and Grover rolled his eyes.

"That's how girls flirt sometimes. Annabeth pretended to hate you, as did…" the girls who had flirted with Percy in the room glared, while Grover skipped their names, "Almost every girl at camp." He said nervously. "Trust me, I could read their emotions."

Percy looked like he wanted to throw up, and Zeus continued.

**and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

"Nice," The Stolls laughed, and Percy rolled his eyes.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course…" everyone muttered in unison.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"Way to go, Chiron. You caught Percy…" Leo muttered.

Chiron turned to them. "What was that, Leonardo?" he asked, and Leo blushed.

"Nothing…" he murmured as everyone snickered.

"Persues," Leo muttered, and Percy scowled as the old Persues blinked. Nico laughed.

"Nicole." Percy snapped. Nico glared.

"Dude! Nicole is a girl's name! At least Nicole isn't my real name!" he exclaimed. Percy shrugged.

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

"Nope." P.J. said with an eye roll.

Young Annabeth whacked him. "Seaweed Brain," she hissed. The futures blinked. Unknown by the, the two had been bonding and Annabeth helped him make friends with the youngers, while she sat on the couch next to him when he moved to the past kids. "It's in the book."

"Sorry," he said, face flushed, and Annabeth smiled, thinking he was cute. They locked gazes, bright green meeting stormy grey, before looking away. Silena and Aphrodite cooed.

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

"You're cute when you blush." Both Annabeth's said, and the younger blushed as she did, causing P.J. to blush, making him look cuter.

"Uhh…"

Beckendorf laughed. "You two got it bad." He snickered, and P.J. rolled his eyes.

"Just like you and Silena." The two blushed, and the younger Stolls high-fived P.J.

Older Annabeth smiled at Percy. "I think your cute when your embarrassed too. You're face gets all pink, which looks cute on you. And you're eyes are all wide and innocent…" she trailed off, giggling as Percy looked just as she described. She kissed his cheek, and he blushed more.

"Uhh…"

The gods and heroes laughed at the similarities. Some things never changed.

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

"Yeah, sure. And I'm from Mars." Nico scoffed, and Jason and Luke looked smug. Percy rolled his eyes.

"I'm not a complete idiot, you know." He said, and Nico rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, but it's still fun to mess with you." Thalia added, bumping his shoulder. "We might as well be siblings. It's what we do." Percy smiled, and Luke and Jason stared on jealously. Hera smiled at their familieness.

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it.**

"No way!" Thalia and Nico gasped in shock, and Percy huffed.

**"****That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

The gods grumbled and the demigods began cursing like crazy at the name Kronos, causing the gods to stop grumbling and stare at them.

"Ugh, Kronos is such a-" Nico started, only to be interrupted.

"Nico, Language!" Thalia snapped, causing Nico to scoff.

"I bet Percy cussed worse than me when he was twelve at the rate he cusses now." He said with an eye roll.

"You try living an hour in my shoes. Then we'll see…" Percy snapped, glaring at him and causing Nico to shiver. It was true; Percy had rights with the amount of stress he was under.

Some people didn't get that it really hurt when he was teased though. They were his friends and they were saying these things about him. Sure they thought it was fun, and they were right, but when you're called an idiot you're whole life, it kind of gets to you. Percy wished someone would understand that.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because …"**

"Because he's evil!" Percy shouted, blushing when all eyes turned to him. The gods raised an eyebrow.

"I will agree he's evil but how do you know?" Hephaestus asked, and Percy sighed.

"Personal experience…" Percy mumbled, glaring at Luke. Luke looked at him, did he know about the voice? Did he know about Kronos talking to him in his dreams? Percy was from the future, and after Luke's failed quest Kronos had said a hero would come he would have to stop. Was it Percy?

The old heroes stared at him. "You- you've actually fought Kronos?" they asked. Percy scowled, but nodded. They stared at him in shock.

"Not just fought, defeated." Nico chimed, and everyone's eyes widened.

"Percy!" Hazel said, whacking him in the head, "You never told us you fought Kronos!" she snapped.

"Defeated!" The Greeks sang.

"But it would make sense. Like how we thought he was a god at first. How he seemed like he'd seen a lot of sad stuff and nothing scared him. And how it looked like he did know what fighting a titan was like…" Frank trailed off, and Percy rolled his eyes.

Octavian looked smug. "I told you the Praetor was better than Jason. The omens said… it…" he trailed off as Jason and Percy glared at him. Jason because he hated being second, and Percy because he hated all the attention.

"It wasn't just me." Percy mumbled, and everyone looked at him in disbelief. Artemis was shocked that a male would downsize himself like that. He was a hero. Hestia looked proud at his modesty.

**"Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"Are you serious? Percy, you of all people should know!" Thalia said, staring at him incredulously. Percy shrugged.

"I do now." He shrugged, and Thalia sighed.

"I'm starting to sound like your mom…" she trailed off, and Percy smiled.

"More like the big sister I always wanted." He corrected, wrapping her in a one armed hug. She smiled.

"Don't forget me!" Nico said, plopping his head between theirs, as they laughed. Annabeth smiled, sliding down to Percy's side, intertwining his fingers into hers. She knew he needed the family time. Nico plopped next to Percy so that Percy was in the middle, and they put their arms around each other, one big happy family. Hera grinned at them.

The family bonding moment was interrupted as a random flute began playing, and everyone turned to the direction it came from, meaning Apollo.

He shrugged. "Background music." Everyone sighed, but the trio of Big-Three demigods didn't notice. They were just happy to be a family again now that Percy was back.

**"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Thank you, Chiron. The idiocy was messing with my brain," The demigods scowled as Athena said that, and Percy frowned.

"Hey, the other people allowed to call Percy an idiot are me, Nico, and Annabeth so back off sister!" Thalia snapped, and Percy hugged her again, laughing. Artemis stared at him. He really was different if he gained her lieutenant's trust.

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And … he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

"You always were her favorite…" Poseidon mumbled, and Zeus looked smug.

"Actually, she liked Hestia best." Percy said, and Poseidon stared at him.

"Percy! You're supposed to say 'No Dad! She liked you!'" Poseidon whined, and Percy rolled his eyes at his childishness, not that he was any better.

"I'm just saying. Hestia's quiet and really nice. I bet you were her favorite boy, though." Poseidon smiled, satisfied, while Hestia smiled at him as well.

"Actually, Percy, it's my dad." Thalia said, and Percy rolled his eyes.

"No, your dads just looked the most like a rock." Everyone burst out laughing at that, and Percy looked thoughtful suddenly. "I see the resemblance." At this point, everyone was howling with laughter, as Thalia sent a shock through his body, and Zeus glared.

Percy glared, pointing a finger above her and flicking it downwards as she was instantly soaked. She glared at him. "You wanna go, Kelp Head?"

"Oh, boy…" Nico muttered, and everyone rolled their eyes at how hypocritical that sounded, while the gods marveled at how much they were like their parents.

Percy shrugged. "Bring it on, Pinecone Face,"

Just as they were about to stand, Annabeth put a hand on Percy's chest, intertwining their fingers again. "Make up, Seaweed Brain."

Percy sighed, and held out a hand. "Truce?"

Thalia smiled, shaking his hand. "Truce?" They leaned in to hug, and just as Percy went by her ear, he added.

"This isn't over, Agreed?" he mumbled.

"Agreed." She smiled, and they sat back down on the couch next to each other, grinning.

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

"Nasty!" Aphrodite and Silena exclaimed.

"How am I related to them?" Piper muttered, and the others just shrugged.

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Eeew is right." Hera muttered, and the elder gods shivered. Zeus smirked.

"My plans are awesome." He said smugly, and the others rolled their eyes.

"Could have worked a little quicker! It was nasty in there!" Hades snapped, as the gods stared at them.

"You live in the Underworld and torture souls all day." Poseidon said, and Hades shrugged.

"Not a fun place to grow up in though. Makes you feel neglected."

"Emo." Poseidon coughed, and Hades glared.

**"-****and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Short, sweet, and to the point." Thalia laughed, and Percy shrugged.

"Well, now that I've lived it, I would probably describe it longer, since it's a book." He shrugged, and Thalia rolled her eyes. "Seriously," he added. "We were talking about the Revolutionary War at school, and I went into all out rant mode. Got really sad about the umm… people who died." He scowled. "They had to bring in my step-dad. It was really awkward." Everyone stared at him, as the youngers wondered who died. The gods were thinking about how much of a hero it was if he admitted it affected him so much, and the heroes shrugged, trying to be high and mighty. The futures looked sympathetic. That war really stunk.

**Some snickers from the group.**

"Wait just a minute!" Apollo scowled, not very happy that people were making fun of Percy. The gods were beginning to like him. "Why are they laughing? You got it right!"

Percy shrugged. "They're weird." He made a loopy sign by his head. "Troubled kids, remember?" Apollo nodded.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend," Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"It matters when you're a demigod who needs to know his motives so that you can stop him," Reyna snapped, and the demigods nodded in agreement.

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Please see above paragraph." Leo said, and everyone looked at him strangely. "I'm talking to the readers."

"Who?" Grover asked, and Leo rolled his eyes.

"Over there!" he said, pointing at you. The demigods sighed.

"Moving on."

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"You're busted!" The Stolls started singing, and everyone rolled their eyes.

"No Phineas and Ferb." Thalia snapped, while Hazel, the past heroes, and the young demigods looked confused.

"Who?"

The demigods looked at them strangely. "You know, the weird that's on way to much about a red haired kid and his green haired brother." Leo said, but they still looked at them blankly.

"Oh yeah, it's like, 2000 or something. They don't have it yet." Frank said, and the others nodded.

"Do they even have DVDs yet?" Chris asked, and the others shrugged.

"I feel old now. I mean, DVDs may not have been around until we were little." Percy pouted, and Annabeth rolled her eyes, kissing his cheek.

"You're sixteen, Seaweed Brain. You aren't old."

They were about to continue reading, when Hazel giggled. "Hey, we fought Phineas, as in Percy's half-brother, the seer, Phineas." Frank laughed quietly and Percy rolled his eyes.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

"Weird," Hermes muttered.

"She was weird," Percy added, and Grover laughed, high fiving him.

P.J. and Grover smiled at each other. They couldn't wait to be best friends.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Horse ears," Nico coughed, and Chiron waved a hand at him dismissively.

"Heard that," Chiron shouted over to him, and Nico scowled.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"As always," Thalia muttered, and Percy bumped shoulders with her. She smiled at him innocently.

**"****I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed." Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children,**

"Gross…" Piper muttered. Leo laughed.

"Piper, your Aphrodite is showing," he told her teasingly. She blanched.

"Oh gods…"

**who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodd's, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Was that sarcasm?" Apollo asked, and Chiron shrugged.

"Nah, he just isn't very good at changing the subject," Percy answered for him cheekily, and Chiron sighed. "Well it's true!" Percy said.

"No one argued, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth added, kissing his cheek.

"Sorry," Percy muttered, blushing.

"You're too sweet," she sighed, and he blushed more.

"Sorry," he mumbled again, and she rolled her eyes.

"Stop that."

"Sorry."

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"They're always doofuses." Artemis snapped, and Apollo huffed indignantly. She didn't get that he just wanted to be her brother. He wanted to have a bond like Percy, Thalia, and Nico did.

"Not all of us," Percy corrected, and she scowled.

"Yes they are." She snapped. "They're filthy, lying-"

"Actually, Lady Artemis, you think differently of Percy," Thalia added, faltering slightly under Artemis's intense glare.

"What?" she glared and Thalia stood defiant.

"I said, you think differently of Percy," Artemis opened her mouth to protest, but Thalia continued. "You admitted that he was a true hero, as did Zoe. You honor his modesty and bravery and that he treats women equally and doesn't abandon us, even when he could have any girl he wanted, he stays with Annabeth, because he's a true hero. Zoe's last words were actually that not all men are bad." By the end of Thalia's speech, everyone was shocked, Percy was blushing, Hercules was glaring, and Hestia and Poseidon were beaming at Percy.

"And, Lady Artemis," Artemis turned to Percy, who seemed hesitant to say something. "You should really give Apollo a chance. He just wants to be a good brother, and you're pushing him away. I can tell…" he mumbled, and Artemis stared at him, shocked. Was he right? Was she pushing Apollo away? She glanced at Apollo from the corner of her eye, who was grinning at Percy. He really liked this hero. Maybe Artemis would give him a chance.

"I'm sorry, Apollo. Percy's right. I do push you away," she muttered, and everyone stared, shocked. Percy had just fixed the family relationship of Apollo and Artemis. He was a miracle worker.

Apollo smiled. "I forgive you, sis- I mean Artemis." He said, pulling her into a hug as she whispered something in his ear.

"You can call me sis." She whispered, and he smiled, before they sat back down, and Apollo mouthed 'Thank you' to Percy, who mouthed back, 'No problem.'

Maybe he could solve the Poseidon/Athena feud. The gods thought hopefully.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

"Here it comes," P.J. groaned. He was used to this.

**I knew that was coming.**

"Yup…" P.J. muttered, and the younger Stolls grinned.

"Dude, maybe you should teach us!" they exclaimed, and P.J. laughed, happy to have friends.

"Sure." He said, shaking hands with them in agreement.

**I**** told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

"Yes?" Chiron said, and everyone rolled their eyes.

"Book, Chiron." Athena corrected, and Chiron blushed.

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"Ooooh! Foreshadowing!" Nico and Thalia sang, and Percy chuckled quietly.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

"Yeah, that'll happen." Thalia said and Percy huffed.

"I can answer it!" he snapped, and Nico and Thalia laughed.

"Sure you can."

**"About the Titans?"**

Facepalm.

"Percy…" Annabeth said, but Percy stopped her.

"I know, I know…" he muttered.

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"Oh," P.J. and Percy muttered, while the others laughed, Zeus the loudest as he read the next line.

**"Oh."**

Everyone was practically rolling on the floor with laughter, while Percy and P.J. sat there awkwardly, blushing like crazy. Annabeth sat up straight, kissing Percy's cheek.

"It's okay, Seaweed Brain," she muttered, and Percy blushed at the nickname "I find your cluelessness cute." Percy grinned at that, intertwining their fingers as she got back on his lap, leaning into his chest.

Young Annabeth smiled at P.J. "I think it's cute too," she said, blushing as she did so.

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important.**

"True," The demigods added, sighing. The information he taught them was lifesaving.

**I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy**** Jackson."**

"There it is again! Why me?" Percy asked, pouting. The older demigods rolled their eyes.

"Because, you're the greatest hero to ever live. It's your job to be the best, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth laughed. The old heroes went wide eyed. They hadn't heard that.

"What!?" They exclaimed, and the others turned to him. "Since when was he- "they pointed at Percy in disgust as he scowled, "-better than us." They asked, appalled.

"I honestly don't agree with the greatest hero ever thing-" everyone gaped at his modesty. "-except I do know I'm better than you four-" the old heroes glared, "Because I never abandoned anyone or did something with help without giving others recognition," the gods and demigods smiled at him. It was true. "Truthfully, I think the greatest heroes are everyone who died for the right cause, or fought for it. I honestly don't get why people think it's me."

Everyone stared at him in awe except the futures who were smiling at him, Jason and Luke who were glaring, the past heroes who looked miffed, and Hestia who looked smug. Poseidon smiled warmly at his son, and Annabeth hugged him from behind. Artemis stared at him. He truly was different. Piper and Leo grinned; he did deserve the titles and respect he was given.

"Ok. Percy? You just proved it." Thalia said, smiling at him happily and clasping her hands together. Percy blinked.

"Huh?"

"And, you don't even know you're doing it…" Nico muttered, as the gods got over their shock to continue.

**I wanted to get angry; this guy pushed me so hard.**

"It's for the best, Percy," Chiron said, and Percy nodded.

"I know. I know…" he mumbled.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'"**

The guys snickered. "What ho?" Apollo asked, and the girls rolled their eyes, whacking their respective boy.

"You guys have messed up minds…" Hera muttered, and the guys shrugged, smiling at each other.

**and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped****.**

"Isn't that a little harsh?" Hermes asked Chiron, who shrugged.

"It was! I mean, we may be children of the gods, but every Greek to ever live is a little much." Percy said, and Chiron sighed.

"I was just teaching," Chiron said.

Percy let out a huff, "Still."

"Well, you know the life story of every camper at camp, and treat them like a sibling…" Nico told him. Percy scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

"Of course I do! We're family!" he exclaimed as if it were obvious, which it kind of was to him. Hera smiled.

"Why can't you all be like him?" she asked. Percy blushed at that.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life.**

"Which stinks," all the demigods mumbled. The gods looked down in guilt. They brought this on their children.

**No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly****.**

"Sadly…" Percy sighed.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"Poor Margret…" Chiron mumbled, shaking his head.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

"That sounds boring." Leo said. Percy and Grover nodded.

"It was." They said, and Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Percy, you're always bored." She said, as Percy pouted.

"Not my fault." He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. He was ignored.

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas****.**

Everyone looked at Zeus suspiciously, who shrugged. "This hasn't happened yet, I have no clue what's going on."

"Do you ever," Hades smirked, and Poseidon snickered.

Zeus glared, and lightning flashed. "I'll have you know-"

"Drama!" Poseidon interrupted, and the everyone laughed. Zeus huffed.

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

Now everyone looked at Zeus and Poseidon. "He started it!" They shouted, pointing at each other like children. The other gods rolled their eyes.

"You two fight like children." Hera huffed.

"Nu-uh!" They crossed their arms indignantly, putting out their bottom lips. The demigods watched amused.

"Oh really, now?" Hestia asked, deciding to help her sister out. "Then who did start your one of many arguments this time?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"He did! No he did! Stop copying me!" They yelled at each other, glaring.

"Let's settle this like men." Zeus glared, and Poseidon nodded in agreement.

They stood across from each other, one hand raised in the air. Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, waves crashed, and earthquakes shook the earth. Percy, Thalia, and Nico smirked with Hades. They knew what was going to happen. They settled things like this all the time.

"You ready for this?" Zeus asked.

"The ultimate showdown…" Poseidon muttered ominously.

"The greatest battle…"

"ROCK, PAPER SCISSORS, SHOOT!" they shouted, and Percy, Thalia, Nico and Hades watched intently, leaning in on their elbows as the others looked at the two weirdly.

"Ha! I wi- what is that?" Zeus asked, as Poseidon smirked.

"This is ridiculo-" Athena started, only to be shushed by Hades, Percy, Thalia and Nico.

"It's a gun." Poseidon smirked, and Percy fist pumped. Thalia and Nico glared at him. Percy pulled this one all the time.

"Are you-" Annabeth began, but Percy put a hand over her mouth, and she glared.

"Guns don't count!" Hades and Zeus shouted, while Thalia and Nico smirked at Percy. Percy pouted cutely, rosy bottom lip sticking out slightly..

"Oh please tell me you're joking." Dionysus drawled loudly. Percy doused him in icy cold water, while he was zapped by Thalia. He glared at them, but they didn't notice because they were watching the fight intently.

"Yes, they do. No rule against it." Poseidon smirked, and Zeus glared harder. The old heroes stared at their parents, as Hazel and Jason leaned back in shock. Were the Greek gods all this laid back?

"Oh, come o-" Reyna started, but she was assaulted by a ghost from Hades and a shadow from Nico.

"Then I could say, oh… Chuck Norris, and always win?" Zeus asked. Percy and Thalia jumped up, high fiving. Nico rolled his eyes at their Chuck Norris obsession.

"Just-" Hercules was cut off as Percy put the magical duct tape on his face. Hercules glared.

"No, it says shoot. Rock Paper Scissors shoot. Not Rock Paper Scissors Chuck Norris." Poseidon insisted with an eye roll.

"Ok this is ridiculous and if any of you three cut you off, I will get the Apollo cabin to curse you to be completely engulfed in light for a month," Annabeth threatened to Nico, who paled considerably, even with his already pale skin tone, "I will tell everyone of your crush on a certain someone back before you were a huntress," Thalia paled too, causing her freckles to stand out on her nose, "And for you, Percy," she paused ominously, "I will not make out with you for a week." Percy went bug eyed and sat on his hands, curling his lips in to make sure he didn't say a word. Annabeth smirked. "Good. Now. Why the Hades do you settle things with Rock Paper Scissors?" she asked the gods.

"It works," Hades shrugged, and the other two nodded in agreement. The children of the big three nodded as well.

The others stared at them, "You're weird," they deadpanned in unison, before continuing while the Big Three and their kids pouted.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"Of course…" Percy, P.J. and the Grover's muttered.

"One of yours?" Apollo asked Hermes.

"HADES NO!" Hermes yelled, and Hades scowled at the use of his name.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

Percy and P.J. sighed, looking down, while the others turned to them surprised. Did they really think like that?

"Do you really think like that, Kelp Head?" Thalia asked, and Percy shrugged.

"I was raised to think like that," he said with a sigh, looking glum. The others were thoughtful. Why would he be raised to think like that, besides bullies?

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."**

"Truer words have never been spoken," Jason teased cruelly, and Percy and P.J. glared. What was his problem?

Leo and Piper stared at their friend quizzically. Why was he acting like this? They had noticed it for a while, but why was he doing it? Was he jealous or something? What did Percy do to him?

Everyone else glared. If Percy really thought so lowly of himself, why would Jason chose now to insult him? It wasn't right. As a matter of fact, it was just plain rude.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

At that comment, the previous tension was gone as everyone burst out laughing.

"Oh, Grover," the demigods said, while Grover blushed.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

Annabeth gasped. "Percy, not wanting food?" she asked, and eyebrow quirked. Percy rolled his eyes.

"No, I didn't want food. Like I said, I didn't have an appetite. And…" Percy coughed, looking at P.J. who was rapidly shaking his head, "personal reasons." Everyone stared at him questioningly, but he didn't say anything more about it.

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas.**

P.J. winced. "That stinks." He sighed. "How bad was Christmas?" he asked, and the others stared at him in shock. Percy smiled.

"Actually-" he grinned, "-Christmas was wonderful. You kind of get a confidence boost at the military school for 5th grade. Things get better."

P.J. jumped up, grinning. "Does that mean-" Percy nodded rapidly, while everyone looked at them weird. What were they talking about?

**I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

Hera smiled at the boys love for his mother. Why couldn't her children be like that?

"Why can't you be like that?" she voiced her thoughts, and her kids scowled.

"You threw me off Olympus," Hephaestus said, and Hera rolled her eyes.

Artemis meanwhile was thoughtful. The boy actually admitted to needing his mother. The others were right, he truly was a hero.

Hestia smiled, as if hearing her thoughts, and nodded at Artemis. She had been watching the boy after all.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Idea!" Hephaestus, Leo, and Beckendorf sang as they began jotting down notes. The others rolled their eyes.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends**

"Who also totally had a crush on you," Grover said, and Percy went wide eyed.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS? WHY ME? YUCK!" He shouted, and the others- except Annabeth- snickered.

**-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

Percy and P.J. made growling noises, which the others had finally learned to ignore. Percy just had to protect his friends.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Mental image!" Aphrodite and Silena shouted. Piper sighed. Why was she related to them?

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper."**

"Not gonna work…" Nico muttered, and when he realized he had spoken out loud, corrected himself. "Percy has a bad temper," The gods nodded in understanding, while the demigods rolled their eyes. Hypocrites.

"Clarisse's is worse!" Percy whined, and Clarisse stood up to hurt him.

"You little-"

"Continue! They could fight all day!" Thalia exclaimed, and Zeus happily obliged.

**But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"Here we go," everyone leaned forward in anticipation, and P.J. looked excited to see his powers in action.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"Nice!" The Stolls high fived Percy, while the young Stolls high-fived P.J., who's eyes were wide in shock. He could do that?

"AWESOME!" Leo shouted, high-fiving Percy. "and I though Jason's powers were cool!" Jason scowled, and Percy blushed. Annabeth smirked.

"That's nothing. Wait until he knows how to use his powers." She said, and everyone looked excited. Percy blushed even more.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

"Here we go…"" P.J. muttered, sighing. The Stolls, Percy, and Leo nodded in understanding.

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

**"-the water-"**

**"-like it grabbed her-"**

"Wicked…" everyone muttered, while Percy blushed again.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"As always…" the Percy's muttered, as the demigods snickered at him.

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc.,**

"Teachers pet!" Percy, P.J., Thalia, both Clarisse's, and Nico shouted, scowling.

**Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.**

"Probably had," Hades murmured, glancing worriedly at Poseidon. He was going to flip out.

**"Now, honey-"**

"Enough with the honey!" Apollo exclaimed.

"She still does that, you know." Nico whispered so only Percy could hear.

"Weirdo…" he muttered, and Nico laughed, causing people to look at them funny.

"What are you laughing at?" Demeter snapped.

"Nothing," they said in unison, looking so innocent that the gods had to agree. Percy juts looked so adorable with his gorgeous sea-green eyes wide.

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"No! Never guess your punishment! It's rule 1264!" The Stolls and Hermes exclaimed. Percy sighed.

"Whatever."

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"Obviously." Hermes said, and Chris rolled his eyes. Was that really his dad?

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"Revenge!" Ethan shouted randomly, and the people who weren't from the future looked at him weirdly. The futures sighed, though. He wanted revenge on the gods, since he was a Son of Nemesis after all, even if he didn't know it yet.

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

"Thanks for trying, G-man." Percy said gratefully. Grover smiled at him.

"Any time, Perce, anytime."

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

Grover nodded. "To death." He deadpanned blatantly. Everyone but Percy stared at him oddly

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

The Stolls snickered until Percy glared at them. They then shivered.

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But-"**

**"You-will-stay-here."**

Grover and Percy sighed. If only he could have gone too.

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"No problem Percy," Grover said cheekily. Percy rolled his eyes.

"Book, Grover." Percy said. Grover blushed.

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

"She usually screeches…" Nico said, and Percy snickered while everyone stared. Was it a monster? Annabeth tightened her grip on Percy's hand, and Percy pulled her tighter onto his lap.

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"Dude, that thing is creepy. But it's not as bad as the 'you hurt my friends, I hurt you,' glare or the, 'I'm going to make your life a living Hades,' glare or the 'no one messes with my family' glare." Nico said thoughtfully, and the demigods nodded. Percy rolled his eyes.

"He has an assortment of glares?" Zeus asked.

The demigods nodded. "Percy's lightest is the 'I hate you glare,' One of his mediums is, 'you may be bad, but I'm worse,' and the deluxe, 'I'll kill you later stare'. His worst is probably the 'you mess with my friend, I mess up your face' glare. You know, right before he goes all Chuck Norris on you," Travis ranted, and the others nodded.

"I go all Chuck Norris?" Percy asked, amused. They shrugged.

"You do go all Chuck Norris." Frank said, and the Romans laughed, while the younger demigods looked confused.

"Who?" they asked, and the demigods went wide eyed.

"Chuck Norris, Son of Ares, Super freaking Ninja." Thalia said, and the demigods nodded. Ares smirked.

"Some kids pee on the floor, Chuck Norris poops on the ceiling," Percy teased, and the demigods laughed.

"Chuck Norris once peed on a truck. That truck is now Optimus Prime." Chris joked, and the demigods laughed more.

"Chuck Norris is one of my idols, along with Percy-" Percy stared at her weirdly, "What, I admit, I look up to you okay?" Percy blushed, "And Michael Jackson, music legend" The kids of the Big Three high-fived. They had an obsession with him –his music. He wasn't necessarily the best role model.

Suddenly, Nico turned to Percy. "Michael Jackson." He said, as if in a trance.

Thalia caught on and went wide eyed. "Michael Jackson," she repeated, and Percy looked at them blankly.

"So…"

"Michael JACKSON!" They exaggerated the Jackson, and the demigods went wide eyed.

"Oh my gods! What if I'm related to him?!" Percy shouted, and Nico smirked.

"You never know until you talk to the ghost." He said, and the others nodded.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I wanna see the deluxe I'll kill you-" Ares was cut off as Percy gave it to him, annoyed. He let out a whimper and had to change his pants. It was as if Percy put all of his pain into that single glare. Needless to say, Ares would have nightmares.

"That's not his worst? It's a medium!?" Hades, the god of the freaking Underworld who spends his days torturing people asked, appalled as everyone stared at the door where Percy and the kids of the big three disappeared into. The others shrugged.

"I literally think his 'You mess with my friends, I mess up your face' glare can kill you." Katie added, and the others nodded.

"It can." Annabeth added. "During the you-know-what, a monster turned to dust from it." Everyone stared at the door Percy disappeared into in awe.

Suddenly, they heard three screams of "AWESOME!" as Percy, Thalia, and Nico rushed in, jumping up and down.

"He's my mom's uncle's cousin! Even if it doesn't look like it!" Percy shouted, grinning.

"Awesome! You're related to my idol! My idol and my other idol!" Leo shouted, and everyone laughed. Percy was too excited to blush about being called his idol.

They sat back down, grinning like crazy, but Percy couldn't sit still from excitement. He kept bouncing in place, as P.J. was too. They couldn't believe it. Annabeth sighed, leaning into his chest. At least she had a message chair.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

"Uh… oh…." Everyone muttered, excitement forgotten. Percy was in grave danger, if this was a monster. Annabeth hugged Percy's hand tighter, and Percy stopped bouncing.

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Monster…." Hazel whimpered. P.J. had started shaking from fear, as did the younger demigods.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"I wouldn't be so sure," Poseidon mumbled, fearing for his son's safety. Percy better not be dead, or someone was going to lose their head. Even though his son was right over there…

**I wasn't so sure.**

No one even laughed, they were too worried. How did Percy get himself out of this mess?

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

P.J. made an 'eep' noise, and hugged his arms to his chest, eyes wide. What if his older self got hurt? He would have to live through this eventually.

Thalia smiled weakly, walking over to him, her feet making soft echoing noises throughout the hall. She picked him up, and walked back over to her couch next to Percy, hugging him tight. Everyone stared at her, even little Percy with his big doe eyes.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "I've always thought of him as a younger brother. Now he is. I'm going to enjoy it." She told them. The others shrugged, while Jason glared. He was Thalia's younger brother, not Percy.

A grin crept onto older Percy's face. He never knew Thalia had felt that way for him. He turned to her, catching her eye with his, sending a silent 'thank you' to her. She nodded, sending a small smile to her cousin.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Chiron!" Poseidon, Thalia, Annabeth, and Nico snapped, worried for their friend. Chiron looked down, glancing at Percy out of the corner of his eyes, wondering how the Hades the poor kid was alive. Thank the gods he was, or Lord Poseidon would murder him. Chiron shivered at the thought, turning back to the book.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

P.J. buried his face into Thalia's hair, and Percy hugged Annabeth closer.

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"Never is," Leo said, trying to lighten the mood. Needless to say, it didn't work.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Obviously," Artemis muttered.

"**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

"Oh boy…" Clarisse muttered, actually worried for Prissy.

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"Not good. Not good." Poseidon was hyperventilating, worried for his son. Hades and Nico glanced at him worriedly.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"She is growling!" Athena snapped, unable to take the tension. Everyone shushed her, and she let out a huff. "Well." She muttered, annoyed.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

"She does…" Hades sighed, making eye contact with Percy, who gave a small nod to tell him that it really was Alecto. Hades sighed. He was in for it.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

"What?" The gods asked. No one answered.

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"Did Percy just use his manners?" Nico muttered to Thalia, who hid her snicker. Now wasn't the time to laugh, even if everyone else was as surprised as them about Percy actually using his manners for once.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"Get away with what?" No answer.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

"Yup. Monster." Dionysus told the book monotonously, even though he was slightly worried. He actually kind of liked the Peter Johnson kid or whatever. Everyone glared at him.

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Sadly, son, that's not the case," Poseidon whispered.

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"Dramatic," Hades whispered, but Poseidon didn't laugh. He was too worried for his son.

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

P.J. let out a whimper at the mention of pain, shutting his eyes tight. That didn't sound good.

Percy, meanwhile, sighed. He was going to have to feel it all over again too.

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"As always…" Jason muttered, and everyone glared at him. He needed to stop being jealous.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"Awesome!" Apollo and Hermes cheered, tension broken. The others were laughing, and Percy blushed.

"Got any more?" Leo asked hopefully. Percy sighed, handing him a bag of Jolly Ranchers.

"Whoop!" Leo shouted, digging into his candy, as Percy handed some Tootsie Rolls to the Stolls, pulling out some Skittles for himself.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

Annabeth and Athena glared at Percy. "Sorry! I'm dyslexic, remember?"

Annabeth sighed. "Fine," she kissed his cheek.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

Everyone remembered the situation and tensed. This was definitely not good for Percy. Not good at all. P.J. let out another whimper of fear in the crook of Thalia's neck, and she tightened her grip on him. Percy hugged Annabeth tighter, eating his Skittles nervously, as the others ate their candy as well.

**"Ma'am, I don't…"**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

"Eep!" P.J. squeaked, wrapping his arms around Thalia tightly. Thalia hugged him; no one hurts Percy and gets away with it.

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"A fury!" everyone screamed, and Percy looked down.

"You never told me you're first monster was a fury!" the futures snapped. Percy sighed.

"It didn't seem important at the time." He shrugged. Thalia glared, hugging P.J.

"It is! I fought furies with training! You have no training and no weapon!" she snapped, and P.J. let out a squeak.

"You're scaring mini-me. The point is I'm fine, okay?" Percy said with an eye roll.

Meanwhile, the younger kids were staring at him in awe. A first monster being a fury? Unheard of. How was he going to get out of this? He truly must be a hero like the others have said.

The old heroes were gaping. They didn't fight any monsters without training, or at 12. This kid was toast. Not even they could do it, even with a weapon.

With the gods, however, they were watching as Poseidon beat the poo out of Hades. He was punching him multiple times until he was covered in bruises, pounding his trident against the god's face like a baseball bat. It wasn't until Percy doused Poseidon in a huge wave of water that he stopped.

"Dad, I'm fine, okay? I didn't even get injured… I think…" he added the last part under his breath, and Poseidon reluctantly sat back on his throne, as everyone continued reading worriedly, Percy eating his Skittles and the others still eating their candy.

**Then things got even stranger.**

"How?" Piper asked. Percy shrugged.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"A pen?" everyone who didn't know about Riptide asked bewildered. Percy smirked.

"You'd be amazed with what a pen can do." He chuckled with a shrug. The demigods who had once had Riptide at their throats –meaning everyone- nodded furiously.

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

Apollo snickered. "What ho…"

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

P.J. let out a squeak, burying his face deeper into Thalia's chest. Thalia smiled a little, despite the mood. Percy was just so freaking cute!

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear.**

Everyone let out a breath, before Percy let out a small laugh. Everyone turned to him.

"It tickled," he told them, and they all went 'ooh'. The curse. Right.

**I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword- Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"Awesome…" Leo breathed. "That's cooler than Jason's sword…" Jason scowled at that. Percy smiled.

"Ah… Riptide." He said, pulling the dangerous pen out and twirling it between his fingers. Everyone stared at it.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

"Bum, bum, bum." The Stolls sang, but everyone was too caught up in the book to roll their eyes.

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp!" Ares exclaimed. He instantly got soaked by Percy, P.J., and Poseidon.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

Apollo snickered and muttered to Hermes, "Honey," Hermes muffled a laugh.

**And she flew straight at me.**

The goddesses let out muffled shrieks and Poseidon hyperventilated. P.J. clung to Thalia like a lifeline and Percy squeezed Annabeth tighter.

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"Naturally!" the gods exclaimed, breaking everyone out of their stupor. Percy shrugged.

"Yup, why?" he asked, completely oblivious once again.

"It isn't natural to swing a sword, punk," Ares snapped. Percy looked at him thoughtfully.

"It isn't?" he asked, and the future demigods rolled their eyes.

"Well, he is the best swordsman ever so… that helps." Annabeth added, and everyone stared at the oblivious Percy who was still innocently eating his bag of Skittles.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

Everyone stared at Percy in awe. That could have just happened. He couldn't be that skilled already. Well, he is the greatest hero of all time.

Percy, meanwhile, was throwing Skittles up and catching them in his mouth. He threw up a green one, and when it came down, a little hand caught it, and P.J. flung it into his own mouth, smirking.

"Hey! My Skittle! Give it back!" He snapped. P.J. smirked.

"No!" he exclaimed simply, grinning. Leo stared at Percy for a moment.

"Wait a minute! My candies gone and you still have a full bag! How?" Leo whined, and Percy laughed.

"Never-ending bag of Skittles, my friend." He replied, plopping another in his mouth. "Got it from a Leprechaun."

"Percy, Leprechauns aren't real!" Annabeth sighed, exasperated.

"Oh really? Then who was the little dude in a green suit? Santa?" he questioned. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"What am I going to do with you?" she asked, kissing his cheek as he grinned sweetly.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

"Spooky," Leo said, and Grover and the Stolls nodded in agreement.

**I was alone.**

"Double Spooky," Leo repeated, and the others nodded again.

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

"Lo and behold! The great mist!" Hermes said, and Percy smirked.

"It actually is a pen," he said, standing up, uncapping Riptide, and showing them his 3 feet of celestial bronze in all its glory. He swung it over his shoulder before flopping back on the couch and capping it, pulling Annabeth back on his lap in the process.

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

"Triple-"

"We get it! It's spooky!" Octavian snapped, and everyone rolled their eyes.

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Magic mushrooms?" everyone asked. Percy shrugged.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Nope,"

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

"Dumb rain…" Silena and Aphrodite muttered, "Messes with the make-up…"

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

Little Percy whimpered at the word 'whipped.'

"Who?" everyone asked, confused.

**I said, "Who?"**

"YAY! WE THINK LIKE PERCY!" the Stolls and Leo exclaimed, while everyone else rolled their eyes.

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

"What just happened?" Orion asked.

"The mist," Percy shrugged, leaving the heroes confused.

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

"Rude," Hestia huffed, giving Percy a quick sympathetic glance. Percy didn't want pity, but smiled weakly back. Hestia was different.

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

"Bet ya he messed up," Nico guessed, and the Stolls laughed while the gods and heroes looked at them confused.

"Grover isn't the best liar…" young Chris mumbled, and the other demigods nodded their heads in agreement. The Grovers blushed.

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Told ya,"

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

"Very serious," the futures said so ominously, it sent chills down everyone's spines.

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

"Drama," Poseidon sang under his breath to Hades, who snickered.

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

"Nice…" the gods muttered.

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"Smooth, Chiron, smooth." Apollo laughed, and Percy huffed.

"It just made me confused," Percy mumbled to himself.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"How do you forget you're holding a pen?" Reyna asked, eyebrow raised. Percy shrugged.

"At the time, I was so confused that I didn't really pay attention." He said, and Reyna nodded in understanding.

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"Here we go…" Hermes muttered.

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Chiron can lie." The demigods nodded.

"Well, I wasn't all right! I was so confused." Percy huffed, and Hestia sighed.

"That must have stunk," she said sympathetically, and Percy shook his head.

"Not as bad as waking up surrounded by talking wolves with no memory of your past and being told that you are a great hero Son of Neptune that has to cross the country alone with absolutely no supplies and save the world once you get to a camp of Roman demigods who will probably kill you while being chased by monsters." Percy sighed, and everyone stared at him, "That really did happen. It was so lonely," he scowled to himself, and Annabeth wrapped an arm around him again.

"You have us now." She smiled at him, and Percy smiled back, giving her a quick kiss.

"I know." He told her, hugging her close to his chest. "and just so you know, you were the only thing I remembered, as cheesy as that is." Percy mumbled into her hair, and she smiled.

"You're right. That is cheesy. But it's sweet to," she whispered back to him, turning to face him.

Percy smiled, "I love you."

She grinned, "I love you too," she said, pulling him into a kiss.

Thalia sighed. "I would interrupt the love birds, but they haven't kissed in like, eight months, so they need it." She told everyone.

The two demigods pulled apart, grinning like idiots. "Mmkay. Next chapter." Percy suggested absentmindedly. The futures sighed.

"All you need is a little kissy time session to cheer Percy up." Conner smirked, and Percy rolled his eyes.

Zeus passed the book to Poseidon who cleared his throat, and began to read.

**Right, another question and another dedication. What is Percy's first memory of his father? Don't forget to vote in the poll and to feed the hungry author reviews. Tell me if you t****hink that some characters are not getting enough dialog. Peace out.**


	3. Socks of Death

**Sorry, sorry, sorry. I wanted to post but was too busy. This chapter is dedicated to demigodrk for obvious reasons. And to all you people who apologised to PercyJacksonObsession.**

**HeartDraconis19361: No, I won't be making it Pothena but I'll add in bonding. Sorry if you're not happy. **

**iissaaiiaahhaarr: I'll do my best.**

**doubles12: Thanks for informing me. I'll add in some flaws.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO all rights belong to Rick Riordan. And Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which belongs to Sony Pictures Animation.**

**Onwards with the story!**

**THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH, **read Poseidon.

"Uh… dad, why don't you let Lord Hades read this chapter and you read the next one. "Why shouldn't I read this chapter?" Poseidon asked suspiciously. Percy looked sheepish "It's safer that way." He muttered. Poseidon eyed his son shrewdly but nodded before handing his brother the book.

Taking the book from his brother, Hades cleared his throat and started reading.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, **

"Like what?" Apollo asked eager to hear more stories. "Third grade, we were visiting an aquarium when suddenly all of the fish started banging against the glass when they saw me" said an amused looking Percy.

**But usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. **

"Surprise, surprise" Clarisse said sarcastically.

**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me.**

"Hey guys, wouldn't it be like, awesome if we pretended that we don't know Percy when he comes back from a quest or something," said Travis as he begun to plot with Connor, Chris and the mini thems. "You know it wouldn't work since I already know what you guys are up to?" Percy stated wryly. They immediately froze "Oh Styx. H-hi Percy" stuttered Conner. The Son of Poseidon simply raised an eyebrow "Hi to you too Conner."

**The students acted as if they were completely convinced that Mrs Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen before in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. **

"Where did she come from anyway? I mean, I know that it's the mist covering up, but humans can't just pop out of nowhere right?" asked Percy. Annabeth shrugged "No one knows Seaweed Brain" "What! Not even you Wise Girl?" Annabeth kissed him softly "Not even me Seaweed Brain, not even me."

Aprodite and Silena squealed softly at the scene before them. The goddesses had a soft smile on their faces at the touching scene. Even Athena had a soft smile on her face because she might not like Percy but he made her daughter happy, so she was satisfied.

Hestia smiled, the books were really good. It was already helping to fix the broken bonds of their family….

Clearing his throat awkwardly Hades begun to read again.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trio them up, but they would stare at me as if I was psycho. **

Thalia laughed "You are psycho Kelp for Brains." Percy scowled and grumbled under his breath about worthless cousins. Annabeth who overheard him just laughed softly and cuddled into him more.

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs Dodds had never existed.**

"Ten drachmas it's Grover's fault" called out the Stoll twins at the exact same time their younger counterparts did. Sharing grins, the four of them looked around expectantly. The Wills snorted "No one is dumb enough to take you on that bet. Sides, where did you get the money from anyway?"

Percy looked up at that and checking his wallet he found it empty. He held out his hand "Give it back." He said giving the Stolls a sharp look. They grumbled but reluctantly took out 10 drachmas and gave it back to Percy.

**Almost. But Grover couldn't fool me. **

"Told ya" chorused the Stolls. The Katies rolled their eyes "No one argued with you." "Burnnnnnnn" called Hermes. "Dad! You're supposed to be on our side. You know, the pranksters hood?" Hermes shrugged "Sorry boys. But I just couldn't resist." Hephestus raised an eyebrow "The pranksters hood?" he asked in confusion. "Yup. You know, pranksters united and all that stuff." Hermes said waving his hand in dismissal. Chris nodded his head in agreement "That's the number one rule of the Hermes cabin." He stated seriously.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim that she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying. **

Octavian sneered "Useless satyr. Not worthy of being called a fawn." Almost immediately, weapons impaled themselves in his chair.

Percy spoke in a cold voice, his sea-green eyes burning like Greek fire, "Grover might be horrible at lying, but at least he's doing something instead of lazing around and begging all day. It's your fawns who are not worthy of being called a satyr and not the other way round." He hissed. Octavian was about to retort but Reyna cut in "He's right Octavian, our fawns should be helping us and not just lazing around and begging.

Octavian wanted to argue but a can of diet coke that hit him on the head stopped him. Looking up he saw Dionysius glaring at him, the god of wine spoke in a cold voice, "Reyna and Percy are right auger, my satyrs are far from useless. You better remember that Octopus!" Octavian nodded his head fearfully "Y-Yes Lord Bacchus" "It's Lord Dionysius!" Chris junior looked surprised, "Mr. D got your names right?" "Of course I didn't Christina, their names are Regalia and Peter aren't they?" he said lazily.

Chris and Chris J flushed and Reyna looked offended, but Percy just touched her shoulder and shook his head "Don't waste your time Rey, Mr D can never get our names right." Reyna looked sceptical but nodded her head anyway. Jason felt envious after all Reyna had been his friend for years but she never let him give her a nickname or anything. But here came this Son of Poseidon and Reyna allowed him of all people to give her a nickname even though she had only known him for a few days. It just wasn't fair! I'll show him. I'll show him whose boss.

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

Jason sneered "Are you blind or what? Of course something happened at the museum." Percy frowned "I'm aware of that Jason, the mist just confused me at that time." "Hpmh."

**I didn't have much time to think about it **

"You never have time to think" chirped the demigods. Percy mock scowled at them.

**During the days, but at night, visions of Mrs Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat. **

"Aww.. is the wittle baby Percy scared a fury?" mocked Hercules. Jason snickered quietly, my thoughts exactly he reflected. "What a coward. Not quite a hero are you after all Jackson." Scoffed Hercules. Percy eyed him with distaste "Better to be a coward than to be someone like you. Using people for his own personal gain. You're nothing but a liar and cheater!" with each word, his voice grew louder until he was shouting at the end of it. Hercules growled "You little-" he was unable to finish his sentence, his anger was blinding him.

"What's the matter Hercules? Tongue tied?" taunted Percy who was on his feet, glaring at Hercules. "Better watch that temper, you might pop a blood vessel." True enough, Hercules looked like he was about to pop a blood vessel, his eyes were flashing, fists clenched as he stood there glaring hatefully at Percy, his breathing was harsh, forced and laboured.

Perseus, Theseus and Orion immediately leapt to their feet. Perseus and Orion hurrying over to try and calm Hercules down, while Theseus went over to Percy to try and stop him from irritating Hercules any further. "Calm down Percy, trust me, you don't want to fight Hercules. He'll kill you!" Percy snorted "Wouldn't be the first time someone tried to kill me" "Well Hercules is different, he'll run you through with your own sword." Percy shrugged him off "So? Why do you care anyway? It's none of your business." Theseus flinched "It's my business. You're my brother and brothers look out for each other." "Yeah? Well didn't work out to well with Ariadne did it?" "…" Theseus didn't have anything to say after all Percy was right…

Meanwhile, Perseus and Orion tried to calm Hercules down "Calm down Hercules, he's not worth your time. He doesn't stand a chance against you. Don't waste your breath on  
Jackson." Hercules calmed down almost immediately, "Of course, I'm the greatest right?" Perseus and Orion nodded their heads although they were grimacing internally; they hated having to suck up to Hercules.

The demigods raised their eyebrows the same thought running through their minds 'What did Hercules do until he got Percy to raise his voice?' while Percy did have anger issues he rarely raised his voice at them. Whenever he got upset Percy would just speak to them in a low, calm voice. When that happened they wished he would shout at them because it would be easier to listen to Percy shouting at them then to hear him speak in that tone. It made them feel as if they had let him down.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, while attempting to ignore the tension in the air, Hades begun to read again…

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. **

"You're always moody" joked Hazel in an attempt to relieve the tension. It worked, everyone burst out laughing while the Percys pouted.

**One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room.**

"Woah, Uncle P and dad are really mad at each other." Whistled Apollo. "You could say that again." "Woah, Uncle P and dad-" "That's not what I meant!" yelled Hermes. "If that's not what you meant, then what do you mean?" "It's a term brother." Artemis said caught between berating him and being affectionate. Guess old habits die hard…

**A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. **

"You should eat more cereal; it will help to relieve stress." Hades looked up from reading long enough to comment "Stop with the cereal woman. No one likes it." He then quickly resumed reading, leaving Demeter to fume quietly.

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantis that year.**

"That's not very nice brother, think of all the poor mortals who died just because the two of you disagreed with each other." Chided Hestia gently. Zeus and Poseidon shifted uncomfortable only Hestia could make them feel guilty.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. **

"Idiot." Mumbled Luke. AJ immediately whacked his head. "That's not very nice Luke. Would you like it if I called you an idiot?" "No." "So apologize to Percy" "Why should I?" "Because its rude and you'll hurt his feelings." "Do I look like I care?" AJ was ready to slap him but PJ stopped her "It's alright Annabeth. But thanks for defending me anyway." "Of course I'll defend you, I mean we're friends right?" PJ nodded "Course we are." He exclaimed.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class. **

Thalia gasped "Percy, why didn't you try harder?" PJ looked at her in confusion "This hasn't happened yet." Thalia blushed "Oh… oops." Leaving the others snickering at her.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr Nicoll,**

"Hey! Nico's teaching!" "Me?" "Yup, you." Nico stared at Will in confusion "I don't get it." "Mr Nicoll, if we remove the double L it will be Nico. Geddit?" he explained. Percy snickered "I don't think that's Nico, Will. He was too cheerful." Everyone burst out laughing at that exect for Nico who was wondering was this how Percy felt? Being put down and belittled all the time? Yet he never seemed to care. He would have to observe Percy more closely when this happened.

**Asked me for the million time why I was so lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. **

Annabeth, AJ and Athena burst out laughing at that. Seeing the confused looks they clarified "Sot means a drunkard." "Oh…" was the collective response.

Percy snickered "Dakota is a sot." Frank, Hazel and Reyna burst out laughing "Remind me to call him that when we go back." Laughed Frank. Jason felt a pang of jealously, it used to be him sharing the inside jokes. Not Jackson.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good. **

Everyone cracked up "Only you Percy, only you." Chuckled Berkendorf.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official" I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy. **

PJ sighed "I can never stay for more than a year can I?" "In tha future we go to a school called Goode. I've been there for two years already." PJ perked up "Really?" "Yup" PJ grinned like a maniac "Woohoo! Yeah!" Percy gave a faint grin, that had been his reaction too when he realized that he was going for another year at Goode. He had scared Paul with his reaction.

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine. I was homesick. **

"Wimp" Ares muttered. Poseidon promptly soaked him with water from the Artic. "Oops, sorry Ares. My hand must have slipped." He said. Ares scowled and glared hatefully at the Sea god.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side,**

"Mommy's boy." Ares sneered. (Guess he really doesn't learn) Percy snorted "I wouldn't talk Ares. You're still living with your parents." Such a hypocrite he muttered under his breath. Ares scowled but he knew he couldn't do anything as long as Poseidon was in the room.

**even if I had to go to a public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and put up with his stupid poker parties. **

Rachel looked angry "How can he organize poker parties in front of a child!" "Hey! The 'child' takes offence at that." Percy joked. Trying to be cheerful, although if you looked closely you could see that Percy's normally cheerful sea green eyes had a darker tint to them. But no one noticed it…

**And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance. **

"More like the stench of it." Poseidon winced "I really should get that cleaned up." Percy nodded his head "Definitely dad."

**The smell of pine trees. **

"Which helped to cover up the stench of the Hudson River" piped Percy cheerfully.

**I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, **

Grover grinned "Thanks Perce."

**even if he was a little strange,**

his smile faded "Or maybe not…" he muttered. Percy gave a sheepish smile in response.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me. **

"I wouldn't be there anymore Perce." "Well how am I supposed to know?" "… point taken."

**I'd miss Latin class, to- Mr Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well. **

PJ looked astonished "He has faith that I could do well?" Chiron looked confused "Of course I would child, which teacher wouldn't want their student to succeed?" "Me." PJ's answer startled them, it was the way he said it… He was so confident in his answer, not even hesitating…

Percy just smiled sadly, he remembered those times. All of the other kids jeering and laughing at him. Calling him stupid and things like that…"Don't worry mini-me, things get better from here." He reassured.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd start to believe him. **

Poseidon relaxed slightly, "That's good." He muttered.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. **

Athena, AJ and Annabeth gasped at the mistreatment of the book. "Percy, how could you?!" scolded Annabeth. "I'm sorry. I was just frustrated with the finals and the teachers asking me why didn't try harder." "Fine. I'll forgive you this time. Don't do it again."

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. **

Clarisse J snorted, "That's nothing compared to mine. Mine does 360's." she boasted. Berkendorf quickly put her down, "Mine blows up before reattaching." They could probably argue all day if Hades didn't resume reading.

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"One's a horse and the other's a guy who loves Italian suits." Percy said cheerfully making Poseidon blanch.

**Or Polydictes and Polydeueses. And conjugating those Latin verbs? **

"It's so easy to do now." Percy said cheerfully receiving weird looks from the Greeks. "You can speak Latin?" the gods asked incredulously. "Yup. Watch." Percy went into some random rant in Latin that they didn't understand at all but the Romans obviously understood judging by how hard they were laughing.

Annabeth looked frustrated, used to understanding everything. Was this how Percy felt? She wondered… As if sensing his girlfriend's thoughts Percy took her hand before grinning at her and saying "The Romans understand Latin, but they don't understand Greek." He then went off into a rant in Greek that made them laugh like crazy.

The Romans blinked, confused. "What did you say praetor?" inquired Octavian warily, not wanting to get skewered by Percy. "I was just saying the same thing I said to you guys except in Greek." Percy explained. "Oh…"

Percy then turned around and looked at the gods who were staring at him "Is there something on my face?" he asked sarcastically. The gods shook their heads slowly. "No, nothing…" Apollo muttered. Percy looked suspiciously at them but simply nodded and turned away. The gods breathed a sign of relieve, while they wouldn't admit it, Percy's eyes unnerved them. The way it seemed to pierce through your body and look at your soul…

**Forget it. I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt. **

Percy gave a yelp making everyone look at him, "Read!" he yelled at Hades "It's so ticklish!" Hades quickly begun to read again much to the relief of Percy.

**I remembered Mr Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will only accept the best from you Percy Jackson. **

"And I did my best" Percy whispered. "That you did child."

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book. **

Annabeth, AJ and Athena nodded their heads approvingly at that.

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. **

Athena frowned "No wonder your grades are slipping." PJ snorted "The last time I asked a teacher for help he just told me that I was too stupid to be helped." Percy winced "Mr Downer 2nd grade right?" PJ nodded. Everyone was shocked. Teachers were supposed to help students, not put them down. No wonder Percy hated school.

**Maybe if I talked to Mr Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried. **

"Aww… how precious." Cooed Aprodite and Silena. Piper stared at them 'How in the world am I related to them?'

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them was dark and empty, but Mr Brunner's door was ajar, light coming from his window stretching across the hallway floor. **

"Creepy…" Hermes said in an attempt to be scary. Needless to say, it didn't work.

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said … worried about Percy sir."**

"Ohh… Eavesdropping are we, hmm Percy?" Hermes asked with a mischievous look on his face. Percy just rolled his eyes at Hermes.

**I froze. I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Yeah right." The demigods said in unison.

**But I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult. **

"I would definitely lose that dare." The children of Hermes admitted reluctantly.

**I inched closer. "… alone this summer," Grover was saying "I mean a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they**_** know to-"**

"Who's the they?" questioned Ares stupidly. "The monster's you fool." Athena responded. "Oh…" then he realized that Athena had just insulted him "I'm not a fool!" "Whatever..."

"**We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

The demigods burst out laughing "By the time Percy's mature we'll all be older than tha gods, Chiron." Thalia laughed. "You're right Thalia, what was I thinking." Chiron stated in amusement. "Not you too Chiron!" Percy groaned. This only made them laugh harder.

"**But he may not have summer solstice deadline-"**

"What deadline?" Zeus questioned Percy. Percy just shook his head "Spoilers. Can't say." Zeus sowled but knew that he wouldn't get any answers…

"**Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."? "Sir, he **_**saw **_**her…" "His imagination."**

"Magic mushrooms right Perce?" "Shut it Solace." Percy said sticking his tongue out at Will.

**Mr. Brunner insisted, "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"Or convince me that I'm mad." Percy grumbled much to their amusement.

"**Sir, I… I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean." **

"You didn't fail Grover!" Percy protested hotly. "B-but." "No buts. You got Annabeth and Luke into camp safely!" "How about Thalia?" "That's different! Thalia chose to do it!" Thalia cut in, "Seriously Goat Boy? I agree with Kelp Head here, it's not your fault." Grover swallowed, he wanted to protest. But he could see that Percy and Thalia were not going to give in, so he nodded.

"**You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

"Good luck with that Chiron, Prissy's a trouble magnet." Laughed Clarisse. Making Poseidon pale 'Just how much trouble could his son get into?'

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud. **

"Noooooo!" moaned Hermes and his kids. "You just gave away your position! That's one of the most important rule of eavesdropping! Never give away your position!" Travis hissed. Percy looked amused, "You would know all about that wouldn' t you Trav?" Travis turned red, reminded of the time Percy had caught him eavesdropping.

**Mr. Brunner went silent. My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall. **

The pranksters nodded their heads approvingly, "That's good. Don't leave evidence behind." Connor muttered.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"What are you doing in your centaur form Chiron?" questioned Hestia. Chiron smiled softly at his half-sister, "I thought there was a monster outside." "Oh… I see."

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside. A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop**_**, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling **

"Hey!" Grover protested, not liking being called an animal. "Sorry G-man."

**Right outside my door. **

"So why couldn't you to sniff Percy out?" Rachel asked curiously. "His smell was all over the school." "Oh…"

**A large dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on. A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. Somewhere in the hallway Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing." He murmured. **

Chiron shook his head "So close." He muttered.

"**My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice,"**

'There it was again' Athena thought 'the winter solstice has been mentioned so many times, it must be something significant… but what?' she mused.

"**Mine neither." Grover said. "But I could have sworn…" "Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow." **

"I salute you Grover. Going through the exams over and over again." Percy proclaimed. Grover blushed "All in a days work Perce." He said modestly.

"**Don't remind me." The light went out in Mr. Brunner's office. I waited in the dark for what seemed forever.**

"Oh my gods Seaweed Brain. You're just as ADHD as Leo." Laughed Annabeth. "He is?" came the unmistakable exited voice of Leo. "Yup." Chorused the others. "Although I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not." "I'm pretty sure it's not  
Chris." Will replied.

Leo frowned, feeling slightly hurt by their comments, he tried not to let it bother him, but it hurt him a lot. Percy had saw the hurt look on Leo's face and turning to Leo he winked at him "Just ignore them Leo, their just jealous of our awesomeness."

"As if." Percy just rolled his eyes at them before flashing a grin at Leo and twirling a finger next to his ear in the universal crazy sign.

Leo couldn't help grinning at that as he watched Percy getting whacked by his friends. He felt proud that Percy would chose to cheer him up. Him of all people.

Perhaps that was why everybody liked Percy. Leo had always been the underdog, but Percy, Percy made him feel special, wanted and dare he say it... Needed. Yes. Leo decided that had to be why they all loved Percy. Leo mused as he watched Percy dodge a slap from Thalia, only to get hit by Annabeth. He understood now… And he knew that Percy deserved every single title he had…

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back to the dorm. Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night. **

"You might be a bad liar G-man, but you're definitely a convincing actor. I almost thought that what had just happened was all my imagination." The tips of Grover's ears turned red. "Thanks Perce."

"**Hey," he said bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for the test?" "I didn't answer." "You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?" "Just… tired," I turned so he couldn't read my expression, **

"It's no use Peter, satyrs can sense emotions." "I didn't know at that time Mr. D." Percy said patiently, he had a feeling he was going to repeat it many, many times…

**and started getting ready for bed. I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. **

"When do you ever?" laughed Clarisse. Percy twitched slightly but faked a smile and rolled his eyes at them even though he was hurt. Nico frowned, he had a feeling that Percy was hurt even if he didn't show it...

**I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing. **

Percy grimaced "The Mist's handy when you need to hide things, but can be a real pain at times." He grumbled remembering the time the Mist had shown him as a criminal.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger. **

"When are you not?" quipped Frank. "I think you're going to give father a heart attack Percy." Said a subdued looking Theseus. The demigods jumped, startled that he was talking to Percy and not being a jerk. Percy pursed his lips but nodded in acknowledgement to Thesues. Though when they looked at Poseidon, they noted that Theseus was right. Poseidon looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

**The next of the afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour-Latin exam,**

"Three hours!" Will J exclaimed in shock. PJ winced "Must have been torture." AJ frowned "What do you mean by that?" "Four letters, ADHD." "Oh… good point."

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside. **

PJ scowled "I'm about to receive a long speech about not being disappointed about leaving aren't I?" ignoring the weird looks he gestured to Hades to read.

**For a moment I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, **

"Still can't believe that he wasn't detected by Chiron," the children of Hermes muttered.

**but that didn't seem to be the problem. "Percy." He said "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's… it's for the best."**

"H-how did you know?" Katie and her younger version inquired. "It happens every year-" PJ replied with a sigh. "-and the teachers are never sincere." "Well not Chiron, mini-me. He's definitely sincere; although you could have phrased it differently Chiron." Chiron simply gave an apologetic smile in response.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

Percy's friends gritted their teeth. "That's it! Where's this girl?!.I'm gonna kill her!" Thalia hissed, sparks flying off her. The other's nodded in agreement.

Percy blinked, wincing internally, if this was how they reacted when he was bullied by Nancy, what would happen when they learnt that he was abused?

**I mumbled, "Okay sir." "I mean…" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. **

"Oh.. you've done it now Chiron. Percy's going to find an excuse to run away." Annabeth muttered, but everyone heard her.

Leo glanced at Percy, if what Annabeth said was true then Percy was pretty similar to him… He was surprised when Percy looked at him, and winked as if to say that he was fine…

Percy sighed internally, he could see that Leo had some self-esteem issues. Looking at Leo who was looking at him he winked to reassure him that he was fine. Percy also made a mental note to himself to talk to Leo later .

**It was only a matter of time."**

"Percy I-" "It's alright Chiron. You didn't mean anything by that."

**My eyes stung.**

"Wimp!" Luke jeered. "What a crybaby!" Percy and PJ rolled their eyes. They had heard Gabe call them that so many times that they couldn't care less. The younger demigods frowned, what was wrong with Luke? Ever since they came here, Luke had been acting weird…

**Here was my favourite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out. **

"I didn't mean to say that Percy, I'm sorry." "Like I said Chiron, it's fine. I understand it now. Water under the bridge and all that stuff." Chiron didn't look convinced but nodded his head slowly, "If you say so…"

"**Right," I said trembling. "No,no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. **

Percy laughed "What Chiron needs is the monkey Steve from Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs thought translator." The demigods burst out laughing as they remembered the time they watched the movie in the Poseidon cabin.

"So true." Giggled Katie. Everyone else except for Piper was confused, since they had not watched the movie. Piper laughed remembering all of Flint's wacky and crazy invention. Suddenly a thought struck her, "Hey guys, -" she called, "Yes?" "- I just thought of something, can you imagine what would happen if Leo saw the movie?" there was a pause before they all burst out laughing. "Chaos!" "Havoc!" "It will be a catastrophe!" Thalia, Will and Annabeth called.

Nico snickered, "Leo would probably try and recreate the machine." Everyone laughed at that, "Hear, hear." They called. Adding to everyone else's confusion.

**What I'm trying to say… you're not normal Percy.**

"Not even by demigod standards cuz." Quipped Nico.

**That's nothing to be-" "Thanks, I blurted. Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me." "Percy-" But I was already gone. **

"Woah! It's like one of those romance novels. You know ,when it's like 'and by the time he turned around, she was already gone…" Leo exclaimed, hands gesturing as he talked. Percy laughed and flashed one of his signature grins at Leo, "You my friend, have a major problem." Leo couldn't help laughing at that, normally he would be hurt even if he didn't show it. But this time it was different, maybe it was the way Percy said it, Percy didn't say it in a mocking way or anything, with Percy it was just a joke. He wasn't saying it as if it was true or anything…

**On the last day of term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. **

"That's nice." Remarked Hestia.

**One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents like me, but they were **_**rich **_**juvenile delinquents. **

"Hey, Beauty Queen, that sounds like- OW!" "Shut it Repair Boy."

**Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. **

"How about you Percy? Why didn't you tell them your daddies a god?" "Dad, I didn't know all this back then." "Oh… right. Oops…" Poseidon scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed.

**I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies. **

"WHAT! Watch what you're saying boy. I'm not a nobody." Zeus thundered. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you say uncle, whatever you say." The others stifled their laughter, only Percy could do that and not get vaporized.

Zeus tightened his grip on his Master Bolt, but all of a sudden Clarisse remarked rather randomly, "No, you're the Nobody, Percy." And for some reason known only to Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Clarisse the four of them started cracking up.

There was a lot of weird stares all around, except for their friends. Chris simply stated "It's probably one of their inside jokes. Percy shares inside jokes with everyone." "Everyone? Even the gods?" "Yes." "Wow…"

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city. **

"That's considerate of them." Noted Hestia with a smile.

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spending my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall. **

"So a typical summer then?" "Nope, not at all. The adventure starts now." "sounds fun…"

"**Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool." They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed. **

"They should eat more cereal. It'll make them more considerate." "Erm… Lady Demeter, -" Percy stated cautiously "- cereal might be great, but it's not exactly the best thing in the world." "What! How could you say that?! Cereal's the best thing in the world!"

Percy sighed; well you couldn't say that he didn't try to be polite. Time to be blunt… "Well, you might like it but not everyone likes it." "Why wouldn't they?" the goddess of harvest demanded. "Because they don't." Percy stated bluntly. "… So, no one likes cereal except for me?" she asked looking around the throne room. no one could meet her eyes…

Demeter looked crushed, "All of you hate cereal, don't you?" she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. Percy sighed, as much as he would like to stop her obsession with all things cereal; it just wasn't in his nature to be cruel. "There are some people who like to eat cereal and those who don't. Everyone has their own preference." Demeter sniffled, "Maybe, but none of you like it."

Percy sighed, "I like cereal." Demeter looked up, "You do?" "Yes, I'll eat it but not too much." "So, if I summon some will you eat it?" "Yea, I will. But not too much, half a bowl would do." Demeter simply nodded; giddy with excitement that someone liked cereal.

With a snap of her fingers she summoned two bowls of cereal, one for her and the other for Percy. Percy accepted the bowl but before eating he looked at Demeter "Don't force people to eat cereal if they don't like it, okay?" Demeter simply nodded, happy that someone was eating cereal.

The gods stared at the son of Poseidon who was trying to get Annabeth to eat some cereal in amazement, not that they would tell him. Percy was a miracle worker, fixing the relationship between Apollo and Artemis, showing Artemis that not all boys was bad and stopping Demeter from her cereal craze… What would he do next?

**The only person, I dreaded saying goodbye was to Grover, but it turned out, I didn't need to. He booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, **

"Coincidence much Grover?" asked Rachel in amusement.

**so there we were together again, heading in to the city. During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, **

"Wow. So observant." "Funny how he notices this kind of things but not the really obvious ones." "Agreed. Isn't that right Perce?" smirked Nico. Percy turned red. Annabeth laughed and kissed him, "You're so cute Perce." The son of Poseidon just turned redder.

**as if he expected something bad to happen.**

"With Percy's luck? Definitely." Grover confirmed.

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. **

"That's sweet, looking out for your friend." Hera asserted. 'Cue weird looks at Hera…'

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I said "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Why are they called Kindly Ones anyway Annabeth?" PJ asked, head tilted to the side cutely. "They don't seem that nice." AJ frowned, "That's a good question Percy." Percy nodded, his head tilted like PJ's, "So, why's that uncle?" Annabeth and AJ immediately sat up straight, eager for more knowledge.

Hades shrugged, "I don't know. Alecto never told me why." He said. Then in a much softer voice he asked, "Why did you call me uncle?" "Well, you're family right?" Percy and PJ responded automatically. "…" Hades looked stunned. No one had ever acknowledged him as family so openly before, well other than Poseidon and Hestia. But even that was a new development…

Felling a blush rising, he looked back down in an attempt to ignore the blush he could feel, he continued to read…

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha- what do you mean?" I confessed about eavesdropping**

"NO! Never confess!" shrieked Hermes and co. "Um… Ok."

**on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam. **

"I never did find out my results." Percy mused out loud. Chiron smiled "You scored 78%. That's a B, Percy." Percy and pretty much everyone in the room's jaw dropped. "W-what! H-how is that possible?" stuttered Percy. Everyone else nodded. Not to say that Percy was stupid, but he didn't seem like the kind of book smart kind of person. Percy was more like a street smart person.

"Amazing. A sea spawn could actually score high. My children are better of course." Athena bragged. Percy blinked, "Was that a compliment or insult?" he whispered to Annabeth. "Knowing my mother, most probably both." Percy nodded, that made sense.

Meanwhile, PJ was celebrating. "Oh yeah, oh yeah. I got a B!" Luke sneered, "Big deal. It's just a B and that's because you're too dumb to get an A." the Juniors (younger demigods) immediately leapt to PJ's defense. "Hey! Percy's not stupid!" Clarisse Junior yelled, much to the amazement of the other's and the embarrassment of her older counterpart, but at the same time they were all nodding their heads in agreement.

The Heroes of Old looked confused. "What does scoring As and Bs mean?" Orion asked. There was no answer forthcoming… Hercules scowled, "Why are you stooping to their level Orion?!" Orion looked at him, "Why should I listen to you? You're not my boss!" "Oh, yes I am! I am Hercules! Son of Zeus! Greatest hero ever! And you shall obey me!" "Wrong…" Theseus whispered softly but everyone could hear him anyway.

"What was that?!" he glared at Theseus, "I dare you to repeat it!" Normally Theseus would have cowered and begged for mercy. But not this time..

He was tired of bowing and sucking up to Hercules. And the fact that Percy was watching him and gave him an encouraging smile was enough to give him courage. "You heard me! I said that you're wrong! You're not the greatest hero! Percy is!" "Who? That filthy son of Poseidon?"

"I'd watch your words if I we're you son of Zeus. My sons are not filthy." Poseidon said in a threatening tone. "And that's my brother you're talking about!" This time Orion spoke with and icy cold tone like his father's. "They're right. I don't see any hero. All I see is a selfish little brat! Whining because things didn't go his way." Perseus said coldly.

Standing up, he stood shoulder to shoulder with Theseus and Orion. "We've had enough of you! We've tolerated you long enough! You're not our boss! We don't have to listen to you!" they shouted at Hercules in unison.

Hercules looked shocked, never in his life had someone defied him. He didn't know how to react. No one did… There was total silence in the throne room.

Until Percy broke the silence by clapping. His claps echoing in the throne room. Ignoring the weird looks he spoke, "Nice one. Standing up for yourselves." The three of them smiled faintly at Percy, after the adrenalin rush had worn off, they were somewhat horrified by what they had said.

They looked awkwardly at Hercules, who was standing there with his fists clenched. They didn't want to sit there anymore. Percy smiled friendly at them, "You're welcome to sit with us."

The demigods exchanged looks, 'what was Percy up to?' they muttered among themselves. A look from Percy that said he would explain later quelled them.

"Just as long as you don't try to do anything inappropriate," Percy said cheerfully but his tone was serious. The heroes nodded, "We won't do anything like that." Perseus stated seriously.

Perseus, Theseus and Orion moved away from Hercules and over to where the demigods where sitting. Sitting down awkwardly they stared at each other. What were they supposed to say? Percy hadn't given them any warning.

* * *

You can skip this because they are just introducing themselves to Theseus, Perseus and Orion.

* * *

Annabeth made the first move, she tentatively offered her hand to them, "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena." "Perseus, son of Zeus." "Theseus, son of Poseidon." "Orion, son of Poisedon." Annabeth introducing herself triggered a 'domino effect'. The other demigods begun to introduce themselves,

"Nico di Angelo, son of Hades."

"Thalia, daughter of Zeus."

"Clarisse la Rue, daughter of Ares."

"Grover Underwood, satyr."

"Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter."

"Travis and Connor Stoll, sons of Hermes."

"Chris Rodriguez, Son of Hermes."

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare, oracle."

"Will Solace, son of Apollo."

"Leo Valdez, son of Hephestus."

"Piper Mclean, daughter of Aprodite."

"Jason Grace, son of Zeus."

"Octavian, Legacy of Apollo."

"Reyna, Daughter of Bellona."

"Frank Zhang, Son of Mars, Legacy of Poseidon."

"Hazel Levesque, Daughter of Pluto."

"Percy Jackson,- " there was a pause before he continued "- your brother."

The Juniors then introduced themselves.

"Travis and Conner Stoll, Sons of Hermes."

"Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena."

"Clarisse La Rue, Daughter of Ares."

"Chris Rodriguez, Son of Hermes."

"Charlie Beckendorf, Son of Hephaestus."

"Silena Beauregard, Daughter of Aphrodite."

"Luke Castellan, Son of Hermes.".

"Grover Underwood, Satyr."

"Katie Gardner, Daughter of Demeter."

"Will Solace Son of Apollo."

"Ethan Nakamura, Unclaimed."

"Lee Fletcher, Son of Apollo"

"Michael Yew, Son of Apollo"

"Castor and Pollux, Sons of Dionysus."

"Percy Jackson, your uh… brother."

* * *

Introduction end.

For those who skipped it:Percy and PJ introduced themselves as Theseus and Orion's brother.

* * *

There was a pause before Percy spoke, "So… uncle, why don't you read? Hades didn't bother to respond.

**Grover's eye twitched, "How much did you hear?" "Oh… not much." **

"Not much my foot." Grover snorted. "Foot? Shouldn't it be hoof?" the Stolls asked with a mock serious expression on their faces. *smack* "OW!" Katie laughed "The two of you deserved it."

Travis pouted, "Aw… but Katie…" the daughter of Demeter laughed before kissing him. "You're a doofus." "Ah, but I'm your doofus."

Aprodite and Silena looked delighted as they watched the two of them. Clarisse sighed, "Alright you two. Break it up. There are kids here." She grumbled while gently pulling them apart. Travis and Katie blushed furiously while Hermes and Demeter eyed each other.

**What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

"The date World War 3 will erupt unless I bring the bolt back." Percy muttered low enough so that only Annabeth could hear. She stifled a laugh "True. But we succeeded didn't we Seaweed Brain." She whispered back.

**He winced, "Look Percy… I was worried for you see? I mean hallucinating about demon math teacher's…"**

"Not hallucinating…" Percy said in a sing-song voice.

"**Grover-****" "And I was telling Mr. Brunner **

"Ooh.. tattling on Percy are we..? Tsk, tsk, tsk, shame on you Grover." Chris pretended to scold Grover.

**that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person ass Mrs Dodds, and-"**

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar." PJ stated. The Grover's blushed, their ears turning pink. Hades chuckled as he read the next line.

"**Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"Guess you don't change much Percy."

**His ears turned pink.**

"Like they are now." noted AJ.

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this okay? In case you need me this summer. The card was in fancy script, **

"Fancy script Dionysius?" Poseidon growled. The god of wine swallowed, "Um… Y-yes uncle." He stuttered. Poseidon didn't say anything; he merely glared at the camp director. After a while he looked away. Dionysius sighed in relief, but knew that he'd better watch his step. Poseidon might not be vengeful, but when provoked he was a force to be reckoned with.

**which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800)009-0029**_

"Hey cool! We have a phone line!" the children of Hermes eyes gleamed mischievously. "No." Chiron said immediately. "No calling Camp Half-Blood." "Aww… But why?" "No." the pranksters pouted but didn't protest further.

"**What's Half-****" "Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my um… summer address." My heart sank. Grover had a summer home.**

"More like a summer camp." Grover corrected.

**I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy. **

"What's the problem with that?" Lee asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "That's cause I used to have a rich friend, and he used me." PJ whispered. Percy winced, he hadn't forgotten that incident. It had hurt him badly… Lee and everyone else was shocked, that was just cruel...

But they didn't have much time to ponder about it for Hades had continued reading.

"**Okay," I said glumly. "So, like if I want to come visit your mansion?**

"Farmhouse actually." Michael amended.

**He nodded. "Or…or if you need me." "Why would I need you?"**

"Percy!" Percy flinched, "Sorry G-man. I shouldn't have said that." Grover smiled at Percy. "It's alright Perce."

**It came out harsher than I meant it to. Grover blushed all the way down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you." I stared at him. All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. **

"Aww… What a good friend." Demeter cooed. The goddesses nodded in agreement. Artemis looked contemplatively at Percy. Perhaps they were right; Percy was different from other boys.

**I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up without me. **

"I wouldn't be there anymore." Grover remarked. "I didn't know." "… Good point."

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me. "Grover." I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

"Oh. I don't know. Let's see, monsters, vengeful titans, gods and pretty much everything in this world." Grover said nonchalantly. Poseidon blanched 'How much trouble could his son get into?' he wondered as he tried not to freak out. Sure he had heard the mega long list of titles his son had, but still… it was nerve wracking to hear them talk as it was so normal. Then again, it probably was to them.

**There was a grinding noise under oour feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard,**

"Pollution!" the Grover's grumbled.

**and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. **

"EWW!" the gods and demigods jumped, and cursed rubbing their ears.

**The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side off the highway. **

"Limped the Greyhound? How do you limp a bus? Every time I hear that I think off the dog." Leo fired questions after questions. Not giving anyone time to answer it.

**After a few minutes of clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. **

Hephestus looked up, "It's just a minor problem. The bus should be up and running in no time." The gods were relieved. While they did not show it, they were really starting to like Percy.

**Grover and I filed outside with everyone else. We were on a stretch of country road- no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. **

Ares scowled "This is so boring! When's the action going to start?!" "Soon." Percy responded curtly.

**On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. **

"It's sad that people don't appreciate nature." The Grovers sighed. The demigods immediately protested, they did appreciate nature.

**On the other side of the road, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old- fashioned fruit stand.**

"Oooh… fruits…" Demeter sighed dreamily.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples and walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw foot tub of ice. **

"Yeah, yeah, yeah… the descriptions very nice, but where's the grapes?" Dionysius grouched. "No display's perfect without it."

**There was no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, **_**knitting **_**the biggest pair of socks I'd ever saw.**

You could see Athena and her children's mind racing, what was this about? It couldn't be just a random shop, no the book would not have described it in so much detail then.

**I mean those socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks.**

The answer was hanging there, they knew it. But they just couldn't remember what it was.

**The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

The goddess of wisdom and her children gasped, it clicked perfectly. The Fates! Annabeth and AJ started to hyperventilate. What was going to happen? Would Percy die? Everyone around them looked confused, what was wrong with them?

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather. **

More gasps, the others had figured it out and was close to panicking. Poseidon was gripping the armrests of his throne tightly, trying his best not to panic. Hermes, Apollo, Leo, Travis, Connor and their younger counterparts looked confused. What was going on? The only calm person? Percy. Having knowledge of what would happen kept him calm.

Hades could feel the tension in the room. Knowing that panicking wouldn't help, he took a deep breath and calmed down sufficiently enough to continue reading.

**silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

This time, even those who didn't realise who they were realised it now. "No! Not Percy! He can't die!" those were the thoughts running through their minds.

**I looked at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching. **

PJ whimpered. After a bit of hesitation, Poseidon got up and went over to his son. Pulling him into a hug, he whispered in his ear, "You'll be fine son, just fine." His voice was steady but he was afraid. Afraid that Percy would not survive…

"**Grover?" I said, "Hey man-" "Tell me they are not looking at you. They are aren't they?"**

The Heroes of Old (excluding Hercules) bowed their heads. The fates truly were unkind…

"**Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny Percy. Not funny at all." Nico muttered.

"**Not funny Percy. Not funny at all."**

The tension was so thick, no one laughed at the fact that Nico had said the exact same thing as Grover.

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors- gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.**

"No! No! No!" Grover J was chanting to himself over and over again.

**I heard Grover catch his breath. **

As did everyone else in the room.

"**We're getting on the bus."**

"Yes. Yes. Yes. Go get onto the bus!" Frank chanted.

**he told me. "Come on." "What?" I said "It's a thousand degrees in there." **

"Percy go!" Athena shook her head, "It's impossible," she whispered. "If the fates has decreed it, he can't-can't escape fate…" her words hung ominously in the air.

"**Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

"No! Percy, don't be stupid!" Thalia yelled at her cousin/younger brother.

Hades read on despite how tense he felt, he knew that it would be best if he finished it quickly.

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I could swear I could hear that **_**snip **_**across four lanes of traffic. **

"NO!" Annabeth burst into tears, hugging Percy as if he would disappear if she let go. "No! This can't be happening! We just found each other again! You can't die!" she sobbed. Percy hugged her back just as fiercely as she did, "I not dead Wise Girl. I'm still alive." He reassured her. "B-but the fates. They cut your lifeline!" Percy shook his head, "Not my lifeline. It's someone else's." he said.

"If it's not yours, then whose is it?" "I can't say who, Wise Girl." "So, you're not going to die?" she questioned as she leaned into his warm chest, no longer crying. "Never." Percy stated firmly. "As long as I have you…" he promised. Grey eyes stared into green eyes, Percy then leant down and captured her lips in a passionate kiss… they seemed to have forgotten the world around them as they kissed…

Poseidon smiled softly, it wasn't often his sins got a happy ending and by the looks of it, Percy had already found his happy ending. As long as his son was happy, he would be happy.

"Dad?" a small voice called, breaking him out of his thoughts. "Yes, Percy?" "Um… you mind letting me go now? Not that I don't love you or anything, but it's really weird to be used like a soft toy to be cuddled."

Poseidon blinked, during the time his brother had been reading, he had been steadily hugging PJ tighter and tighter, like a soft toy. "Oh… of course." He gave a sheepish smile as he released his son. "Sorry." PJ grinned at his father, "It's alright dad."

The goddesses smiled at the touching scene before them and if you looked closely, you could see faint tear tracks. The futures were relived, Percy wasn't going to die! They were grinning like maniacs, yes, even Clarisse.

Theseus and Orion were delighted, their little brother was going to live! Perseus was grinning to, his namesake was definitely a lucky one.

The minis were smiling, especially AJ. AJ threw her arms around PJ before kissing him on the cheek. PJ turned red. AJ blushed. It had been a spur of the moment kind of thing.

Everyone else was laughing at them. "Looks like the first time you kissed me after the Chariot Race, Wise Girl." laughed Percy, his sea-green eyes twinkling mischievously.

Yup, everyone was happy that Percy was alive. Well… except for Hercules and Jason who thought Percy would be a lot better dead. But that's normal.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering **

"You're always wondering Seaweed Brain." Giggled Annabeth. Percy gave a goofy smile, kissing her on the cheek, "Wondering about how lucky I am to get such a wonderful girlfriend." Annabeth smiled, "You're so chhesy."

**who could they possibly be for- Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

The throne room erupted into laughter. "Sasquatch!" "No, Godzilla!" Travis, Connor, Leo and the younger Stolls yelled at each other.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered and the engine roared back to life. **

Leo perked up "Now that's a really fast way of fixing an engine." Berkendorf gave him a weird look "You know that wouldn't work right?" "It worked for the bus driver." "Well, yeah. But that's because the fates were stopping it. Not because of some technical problem." Leo sighed, "I know, but it just seemed super cool, ya know?" "Um… okay."

**The passengers cheered.**

"Yeah!" "Hooray!" "Yippee!" the Stolls and Leo shouted. "What's that for?" "Oh… we're just adding the sound effects." Percy rolled his eyes, "Girls?" "On it." Piper, Katie and Reyna slapped the three boys on their heads.

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat, "Everyone back on board!" Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. **

Percy groaned, he could feel a migraine coming. When everyone looked at him in concern, he gestured to Hades to continue reading. Annabeth looked at him in concern,"You okay Seaweed Brain?" "Yeah. I'll be fine. Just read." He gritted. Hades complied.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. **

Percy sighed in relief as the feeling of being sick faded away…

"**Grover?" "Yeah?" "What are you not telling me?" he dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"Heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw foot tub of ice, and three old ladies under the shade of a maple tree knitting socks. You should know G-man, you were there too." Percy said cheekily. "That's not what I meant." Replied a disgruntled Grover.

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like… Mrs Dodds, are they?"**

Hephestus shook his head, "They're far worse than her."

**His expression was hard to read, **

Chris whistled, "That's pretty impressive Grover, after all Percy can usually see right through people as if they were invisible." There were murmurs of agreement from the demigods.

Reyna nodded, "It's his eyes isn't it?" she asked with a knowing look in her eyes. When I was testing him whether he was telling the truth or not, I felt like he was testing me and not the other way round. Percy blushed, "I did?"

Hazel nodded, "You looked like you're analysing my soul when we first met. Your eyes were so intense." "My eyes freak you out?" "Not really, but it's just that your seem to look right into our souls." "Oh… I'll try not to do it." Percy looked self-conscious.

Travis and Connor turned to their younger counterparts, "If you think lying to Chiron is hard, you should try lying to Percy. It's impossible to lie. He can tell when you're lying and when you're not. Trust us, Percy has often caught us," Hermes looked impressed, "Percy's really that good?" The Son of Poseidon looked embarrassed, "I'm not really that good."

"Hmm… Hey Percy, do you know that George and Martha are twins?" Percy smirked inwardly, detecting the lieimmediately, but instead if calling him on it, Percy decided to challenge the god of lies at his own game.

"Yeah, I know. And do you know that in the future, George and Martha decided that they loved each other more and married each other? They have a kid called Marge too." Hermes looked shocked, falling for Percy's lie immediately. "What!"

The future's burst out laughing, "You guys forgot to tell dad that Percy's even better at lying." Laughed Chris. "Hold on! You were lying?" Percy nodded his head, unable to say anything because he was laughing to hard.

The throne room burst into laughter at the fact that the god of lies himself had been bested at his own game. Hermes could only open and close his mouth in shock that he had been lied to.

Taking a deep breath to get his laughter back under control, Hades begun to read again. As he read, everyone became attentive, although there was chuckles every now and then.

**but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs Dodds. **

"and when Percy has a feeling, he's usually right." Frank declared.

**He said, "Just tell me what you saw." **

"A fruit stand." Percy said with a mischievous look in his eyes.

**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn. **

"Atropos. The one who can't be turned. She cuts the thread of life." PJ stated seriously. AJ looked at him in shock, "How did you know that?" PJ smiled "Mom would tell me stories about the Greek myths." Looking around the room, he amended, "Well, not exactly myths anymore."

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. it was something else, something almost-older. **

"Observant." Athena noted.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord." "Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal. "This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time. **

Grover J flinched at the reminder of his failure. As if sensing his thoughts, Percy gave a reassuring smile to him "You didn't fail G-man." He reassured. Thalia nodded in agreement to her cousin's words, "I made the choice myself Goat Boy. It doesn't have anything to do with you." Grover J smiled tentatively, feeling somewhat reassured.

"**What last time?"**

"I agree. What last time?" Leo questioned. The demigods exchanged looks. "It should come up in the later chapters and if it doesn't we'll tell you." Replied Percy. Leo nodded "Okay."

"**Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth grade." "Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?" "Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me." This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could. **

"Some promise that turned out to be." Grover grumbled. Annabeth frowned "Why didn't you keep your promise? You usually do." "He was freaking me out."

"**Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked. **

"Close enough."

**No answer, "Grover- that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

"Yes." Artemis's words hung ominously in the air..

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"Blue flowers and Moonlace." "It's a shroud, not a coffin." You would know all about it wouldn't you cuz?" teased Percy. Nico scowled "Shut it." Just then funeral music started playing, everyone immediately turned to the culprit- Apollo. Who stopped playing when everyone looked at him. Artemis shook her head in amusement, 'Oh Apollo, what am I going to do with you?' coughing slightly to get their attention, Hades passed the book to Poseidon, "Well lets read the next chapter shall we?"

**Well, that it. The next update will take time to come but I've already got some ideas so don't kill me. Check out my other story please? Oh and don't forget to vote on the poll. I'm closing it at the end of January. Who are the children of Kronos? And do you have any suggestions or requests?**


	4. Percy's Abused!

**Congratulations Apol31(1****st**** to answer, but not complete.) and BlackGryphon101 (who answered correctly) Hope you enjoy this chapter. **

**Some of you guys asked whether I was abandoning this fic or not. And the answer is NO! I SOLEMLY PLEDGE THAT I WILL NEVER ABANDON THIS FIC! **

**Oh, and I just realized, I've been typing the Stoll brothers as twins. So I'll be editing all the parts that mentions them as twins and change it to brothers. **

**Someone brought this up in a review and after some consideration I decided that Luke is from a different timeline. One year before Percy comes to Camp Half-Blood. **

**And for those who already read this chapter, just skip all the way down to the line breaker in the story. **

**Anime Princess: Coming up in the next chapter. Sally's coming in at the end of the book. **

**KairacahraFlower Goddess** **: Your review really made my day. Come visit Malaysia? And yes, it is out of a hundred. **

**Spinninghypercookie: While it wasn't stated outright, it was implied that Percy could be abused. I suppose it's how one would understand it. As for Jason, it is mentioned in the Mark of Athena that he seemed a little jealous of Percy. So, I'm just making it like before Jason came to terms with Percy. As for Percy's mary-sueish, I admit that I need to work with his character more. Unfortunately, it's kind of hard for me to write about my favourite character's flaws. I'm doing my best to work it out. **

**Youwannabekate: I'm sorry that I can't update fast enough for you but I doing the best I can. I not very free and only have a few hours to write every day. So I'm sorry. And also, I a lot of things but being a quitter is not one of them. So no. I'm not abandoning this fic. **

**V. L. Crawford: While I do agree that I was evil to Percy, it's kind of necessary so that his friends will realise that there's more to Percy than meets the eye. **

**Eternal Stars 5: Thank you for pointing that out. Yes, Luke is from a different time. Oh, and not offended at all. I don't mind criticism that helps me to improve the story for the readers' enjoyment. **

**Heggiehog101: I'm aware that it's in the books. The questions are actually for testing the readers' knowledge in the PJO and HOO books. **

**Disclaimer: Don't own PJO. It belongs to Rick Riordan. Don't own Taylor Swift either. All rights go to them.**

* * *

Poseidon was about to read the title when a bright flash of light engulfed Ethan, Michael, Lee, Castor and Pollux. When it had faded, the five of them were gone. A note fluttered down from the ceiling. Catching it, Percy squinted at the note before reading it out loud.

_**We have sent Ethan, Michael, Lee, Castor and Pollux back to their own time because there are too many people. And it's sapping our energy. As the reading continues, we will be removing and adding more people. So be prepared.**_

_**From: The Fates and Apollo.**_

Apollo was disappointed. Two of his kids had been sent away, but he still had Will…

**Grover Unexpectedly loses His Pants**. Poseidon read.

Percy winced; this wasn't going to be a fun chapter. "Hey dad, could you skip this chapter as well?" Poseidon frowned, "Why would I?" he asked.

"Please..." Poseidon shook his head, "Sorry Percy. But no." he said firmly. Percy sighed but didn't argue further…

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

Hestia frowned, "That was very rude of you nephew. Especially since you promised to let Grover walk you home from the bus station." Percy looked embarrassed.

"Yeah, I know Lady Hestia. But he was really starting to freak me out." "No need to be so formal. Aunty Tia would be fine." She stated, giving Percy a smile which he returned.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out,**

They snickered, Percy had said the exact same thing earlier.

**looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?" Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up,**

"Now that sounds-" Travis paused, waiting for his brother to finish the sentence.

"- very interesting." Connor finished.

**so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

The demigods snickered, poor Grover…

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown. **

"Impatient to see mommy aren't we?" Apollo joked. Percy faked a smile, "Yeah, I was." He said with fake enthusiasm… not that anyone noticed…

"**East One-hundred-and-fourth and first." I told the driver.**

Thalia and the demigods (those who had met Sally) looked confused, "That's not your address." Thalia said in confusion. "It's my old address." Percy corrected. "When mom started dating Paul, we shifted to a new apartment; where people use the fire escape to enter and exit." The demigods burst out laughing at that.

It was a running joke between them that anyone who wanted to visit Sally had to go through the fire escape first, since that was how all of them had first entered.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her. **

Each and every single demigod who had met her before called out.

"Kind."

"Friendly."

"Awesome."

"Patient."

"Understanding."

Poseidon smiled wistfully, "Beautiful." He stated.

PJ and Percy shared smiles, there was only one way to describe their mother. "Perfect." They whispered together, although it was loud enough for everybody to hear…

The gods were surprised, who was this lady who had captured the hearts of their children they wondered.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. **

Percy nodded his head, indicating that he agreed with his past self. The demigods frowned, what Percy didn't realise was that it applied to him as well. After all, Percy was the nicest guy ever, and yet all the bad stuff still happened to him.

Nico spoke up, "You know that it applies to you too?" Percy blinked, confused. "What do you mean by that?" he inquired. But instead of Nico answering, it was Thalia who answered. "You've got to be kidding me Percy. You have the worst luck ever! Monsters chase you. You have participated in so many prophecies, fought in a war, -" "Two wars actually." Percy interrupted Thalia.

"That's exactly my point! You've been through so much, but yet you can still ask us what do you mean by the worst luck ever?!" Thalia was almost hysterical.

Percy snorted, "Me? Have the worst luck ever? You've got to be kidding me. Sure, I went through all those stuff that you named. But I'm still the luckiest person ever." Seeing their confused looks he elaborated, "I have the greatest mom ever. My stepdad's understanding. My father actually pays attention to me. I have the greatest girlfriend in the world. My friends are the best. What more can I ask? I'm the luckiest guy in the world!" 'If we ignore what happened when I was younger' Percy thought grimly as he kept up a façade of fake happiness… 'I just hope that it won't be in the books'

Ignoring his dark thoughts, Percy gave a brilliant fake smile, and joked, "Well, if you ignore Thalia and Nico my extremely annoying cousins." Winking at Thalia and Nico to show them that he was joking. The two of them huffed, feeling indignant.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash**

"Zeus!" Demeter shrieked, having developed a soft spot for the son of Poseidon. Her brother winced, "Sorry." He muttered; not feeling very sorry. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Demeter eyeing him, but she didn't do anything.

**when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist**

Athena nodded, "It's a noble career." She stated.

**so she spent high school working to save enough money for a collage with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma. **

The demigods who had met Sally before exchanged looks, they had no idea that Sally's life before this was so difficult…

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad. **

Aprodite and Silena bounced up and down delighted. "Aww… so romantic." They cooed. Even Piper looked rather excited.

Poseidon had a goofy smile on his smile like how Percy looked when Annabeth kissed him. Grinning stupidly, Poseidon continued to read.

I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.

"POSEIDON!" roared Zeus. "You know we're not allowed to visit our children! You broke the ancient law!" "And why does that matter? Percy's my son and no amount of law will stop me from acknowledging that!" Poseidon declared firmly.

The demigods felt jealous of Percy. They wished their godly parents was as caring as Percy's. Poseidon was nice enough though, letting them use his cabin and stuff like that…

Katie J looked at her mother curiously, "Why can't you be like that mother?" she questioned innocently. Everyone looked at the gods curiously, wondering what the answer would be.

Looking at their children, the gods felt guilty. Demeter shifted uncomfortably, not knowing what to answer. "Erm… I suppose it's because I follow the rules and don't break them?" she answered, although it came out more like question.

Katie J frowned, not really satisfied with the answer. There was an awkward silence in the throne room before Poseidon cleared his throat and continued to read.

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures**

Percy smiled wistfully, he missed his mother. Thalia spoke but only loud enough so that only the demigods could hear her, "You know, it could have ended badly, if Sally was a spiteful person. She could have just left Percy cause he looks so much like Uncle Seidon." There were murmurs of agreement from the demigods.

**See, they weren't even married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back. **

"I like that." Grinned Hermes. "A woman who can tell the truth while lying." He immediately regretted saying that for he became the victim of some very scary glares. "No hitting on my mom Hermes." Warned Percy. Hermes nodded, not wanting to anger his cousin.

**Lost at sea, my mother told me. Not dead. Lost at sea. **

"Pretty ironic considering that your father is the sea itself." Annabeth commentated. Poseidon smiled slightly at Annabeth before continuing to read.

**She worked odd jobs, took night shifts to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. **

PJ frowned, "Why didn't you help her?" he asked Poseidon. The god of seas sighed, "Sally was independent. She refused to accept my help." He murmured. PJ's eyes softened, so his father did care, and tried to help…

Turning his attention back to the book, Poseidon continued to read.

**She never complained or got mad. **

Hazel looked amazed, "Not even once?" she asked incredulously. PJ and Percy smiled mysteriously and nodded their heads at the book as if saying, the book will explain. Poseidon smiled as he read the next sentence in the book.

**Not even once. **

"Wow. Hazel are you physic?" laughed Chris. Hazel grinned mysteriously, "Maybe." She said in a spooky kind if mysteriously tone, much to their amusement.

**But I knew I wasn't an easy kid. **

Jason laughed- but it wasn't a nice laugh, it was a cold laugh- "So you admit it." He mocked cruelly. Hercules smirked, 'Finally someone who has a brain.' He thought to himself arrogantly.

Reyna frowned, "What is your problem Jason?" she asked the son of Jupiter. "You've been acting like a spoilt brat ever since we got here." Jason scowled, 'Reyna was supposed to be on his side.' He thought angrily.

Poseidon frowned at his nephew before he started to read…

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, **

"It's amazing that something so horrible has such a nice name." Percy muttered darkly. PJ winced, 'So true' he reflected. The others were confused, "What do you mean by a nice name, Percy? His last name's Ugliano. How can it be nice?" asked a confused Nico. Percy scowled, "It. Not him Nico." He corrected his cousin. "And its full name is Gabriel Ugliano." Percy spat out the name as if it was poison in his mouth.

The demigods exchanged looks, worried. They had never seen Percy like this. The son of Poseidon had always been cheerful and carefree. Never like this. They didn't know what to do…

They had a bad feeling about this. They had a feeling that this chapter was going to reveal some very unpleasant truths. Poseidon cautiously began to read again. He had a very bad feeling about this…

**who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colours as a world-class jerk. **

"No doubts about that." Percy said venomously. The demigods and gods shifted uneasily. The temperature in the room was steadily decreasing. Noticing this Hestia poked the hearth in an attempt to make it warmer. It worked for a while, but the heat slowly began to dismiss.

Annabeth shivered, leaning back into Percy to share some of his body heat. But she was surprised when Percy gently pushed her off his lap. Ignoring her surprised look, he drew her in close, putting his arm around her, his warm body warming her.

Leo twitched, he didn't like the cold. Holding out a hand, he summoned a ball of fire which warmed him up a bit before it extinguished. Leo stared at his hand in surprise. Never before had his fire gone out without him willing it or when he ran out of energy…

PJ bit his lip, 'Gabe's not here, you're on Olympus now.' He chanted to himself over and over again trying to keep himself grounded in the present. "Percy?" AJ called in concern when she noticed that the son of Poseidon was spacing out. "Are you okay?" PJ blinked, shaking his head slightly as he registered AJ's question. "Yeah… I'm fine." He reassured her. AJ didn't look convinced but nodded her head; shivering slightly from the cold. PJ noticed this and hesitatingly put his arm around her, warming up the daughter of Athena.

"Ah… young love." Perseus said with a smirk to Theseus and Orion who snickered.

Poseidon shifted uncomfortably; he had a feeling that this was going to get a lot worse as he read…

**When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. **

"Come on Percy! Is that the best you can do?!" Hermes exclaimed, trying to relieve the tension. It kind of worked… for Percy seemed to relax slightly. Strangely enough, the temperature also warmed slightly, as if it was responding to Percy's emotions and feelings…

**I'm sorry, **

"You better be!" exclaimed Hermes. Percy cracked a small smile while the others laughed for a while before stopping for it was too awkward**… **

**but it's the truth. The guy reeked like mouldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts. **

Aprodite, Silena, Piper and pretty much everyone else in the room looked sick, their faces turning green. "EWW!" squealed Piper. Leo snickered, nudging Piper lightly, "You're obnoxious girly side is showing Beauty Queen." Piper blushed lightly before elbowing him. "Don't call me Beauty Queen, Repair Boy." She grumbled but it wasn't in a mean way.

AJ turned to PJ, "Do I want to know how you know how that smells like?" she asked warily. PJ grimaced, "That's definitely a big no." he replied.

"Dad, could you continue reading." Percy requested, not wanting to dwell on this any longer. Poseidon abided…

**Between that two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Gabe treated her, **

PJ's head snapped up, "How did he treat her?!" PJ demanded to know. Percy's eyes flashed as he tried to control his temper. "…" Percy didn't say anything, but his silence was enough information for PJ.

PJ's eyes flashed murderously, "Why that bastard! I'll kill him!" he seethed. Poseidon looked alarmed, "What?! Who did what to Sally?!" PJ was about to answer but Percy stopped him with a shake of his head. "Dad, just… just drop it." Percy asked softly. Poseidon looked pained, "Percy…" Percy shook his head, "Dad, please…"

The god of seas sighed, "Alright. But you're going to have to explain after this." Percy reluctantly agreed. Throughout the entire exchange, the others were looking back and forth in confusion, not understanding a single thing except for those who knew Sally, they looked extremely mad.

Eyeing his son suspiciously, something was wrong, but Poseidon knew that forcing his son to tell him what was wrong would be useless. Hopefully whatever was troubling him would be revealed in the book…

**the way he and I got along… well, when I came home was a good example. **

Everyone was nervous now. They knew that they were closer to finding out about what was troubling the Percys.

Percy and PJ exchanged looks, this was not good.

**I walked into our little apartment hoping my mom would be home from work. **

"One can only hope." PJ muttered under his breath.

**Instead Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet. **

"Slobs." The goddesses and female demigods chorused. Silena wrinkled her nose, "How can they even stand being in that mess." She exclaimed.

"Pigs." Thalia muttered. "Oh, trust me. It's far worse than that." Percy murmured under his breath darkly.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So you're home." "Where's my mom?"**

"Now isn't that sweet. His first concern is his mother." Hera stated with a smile. Glaring at her children her tone changed suddenly, she snapped "Why can't you be like that?!"

Hephaestus shrugged, not caring. "You dropped me off Olympus." He reminded her. Ares just rolled his eyes at his mother.

"**Working." He said. "You got any cash?"**

"He asked you for cash!" was the general outcry in the throne room. "That- that filthy good for nothing piece of shi-" Thalia's rant was interrupted by Percy. "Don't waste your time Thals. And don't swear."

Thalia looked shocked, "How can you not swear Percy?! Especially over that piece of garbage!" "First, I try not to swear, not don't swear at all and besides mom doesn't like it when I swear."

Even though they were angry, they couldn't help smiling at Percy's devotion to his mother.

Taking a deep breath to calm his temper, Poseidon begun to read…

**That was it. **

"That's it!" shrieked an indignant Hazel. "No welcome back?! Good to see you?! How has your life been the last six months?"

**No welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

Hazel looked disgusted. "I think like 'him'." She muttered in disgust, shaking her head in denial.

Hiding a faint smile, Poseidon continued reading.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. **

Silena and Aphrodite looked green. "Must you be so detailed; Percy?" asked Silena.

**He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, **

Silena and Aphrodite looked like they were about to puke…

**as if that made him handsome or something.**

"Even a thousand makeovers wouldn't make him look any better." Stated Aphrodite who looked more pale than green now.

**He managed the Electronic Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before.**

"Lucky bastard." Katie said venomously.

**He just kept collecting pay checks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beers of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. **

"You have to pay for him!" "Yes." Percy replied emotionlessly to Rachel. They might have pestered Percy with more questions if it wasn't for Poseidon who moved on, eager to finish the chapter.

**He called it our "guy secret"- **Poseidon stopped reading abruptly causing everyone to look at him in confusion, why did Poseidon stop? They wondered.

"Why did you stop uncle?" inquired Hermes but Poseidon ignored him. The god of seas was more focused on his sons.

"Percy-" He breathed, "-is… is it true?" he asked softly. PJ and Percy closed their eyes, their worst fears confirmed, Gabe's treatment of them was in the book.

"Percy… please… I- I want to know." Percy looked at his father imploringly, "Dad… please just- just drop it." He begged, his voice wavering slightly.

The others were looking back and forth between Percy, PJ and Poseidon, not understanding what was going on. "Percy, what's wrong?" asked AJ but PJ ignored her.

Percy's friends were worried; they had never seen him like this. He was always so strong, so independent… but now… Percy seemed so lost, so broken…

"Percy… tell me please." "Tell you? What's there to tell?" Percy was on his feet now, watching his father attentively, ready to run at any moment.

"Percy.. you can tell me. Just admit it." –Poseidon was desperate now- "Why should I? It's not important." "Of course it's important! It's very important." "I highly doubt so." "Percy, just tell me!" Poseidon's voice held a hint of impatience.

"Why should I?!" "Because I need to know!" Poseidon burst out, standing up. Both PJ and Percy flinched.

And before he could stop himself, Percy burst out with what he had wanted to say for a long time. "Need! What do you need to know?! Well here's the thing! There's nothing you need to know!" Percy laughed maniacally. There was a wild gleam in his eye.

"But if you insist on knowing… then I'll tell you all of these since you wanted to know so badly!" Percy looked crazed.

When I was five, Gabe started hitting me! I was six and he threw a chair at my head for buying the wrong beer! Seven! He beat me up for not having any money! –PJ flinched at this- Eight! I nearly bled to death when he threw me against the wall! Nine! He whipped me on my bare back! Ten! I was beaten to an inch of my life! Eleven! He stepped on me and broke my leg, and cracked a few ribs!

Or do you want to know about how I would cry myself to sleep every night?! Praying for somebody; anybody to save me! How I'd hide my wounds from my mother because Gabe threatened to kill her if I told her what he was doing to me! Is that what you want?! Huh?! Are you satisfied now?!" Percy yelled at his father, his voice cracking at the end of his tirade.

It was then Percy realised, the throne room was silent; so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Everyone was staring at the son of Poseidon. Some in shock, some in pity and others in exasperation. Percy resisted the urge to snarl at them, he didn't want their pity.

Looking around, he saw his friends were looking at him in shock and horror. Realising that he had said too much, Percy turned and sprinted towards the doors to the throne room.

Extending a hand, he willed the water molecules in the air to open the door for him. The door opened a crack and he slipped through it. Closing the door with a bang behind him. No one tried to stop. They were frozen to their seats.

Everyone stared at each other in shock, some in horror and for certain people amusement. They all had different reactions to what had just transpired…

Hercules, Luke and Octavian were amused; it was obvious that Percy had done to get attention. Everyone else was silly to believe Jackson's lies. "Attention seeker." They muttered.

Jason's face was impassive as if set in stone. But inside him, his feelings were warring against each other. He was jealous of Percy but at the same time angry that the son of Poseidon had been abused. 'No one deserved that' he thought.

The gods were in shock, even Ares appeared shaken. 'How could someone do that to such a cute and loyal kid?' they wondered.

AJ and the juniors were trying to calm PJ down to no avail. PJ was shaking like a leaf. His secret was out! He started to hyperventilate. Will's eyes widened, he recognized the signs of hyperventilation "Percy, take deep breaths. Yes, that's it." Will was relieved when PJ listened to him and calmed down.

Although PJ was calm, you could see that he was panicking on the inside. Seeing this, AJ then spoke softly to PJ, "Percy… Percy, it's fine. We won't judge you just because of that. Right guys?" she asked, giving them a meaningful look, not that they needed it…

PJ shook his head, reluctant to tell them anything. "Guys… don't- don't." he stuttered, his hair falling into his eyes. Clarisse J was about to protest but AJ cut in, "It's okay if you don't want to tell us Percy. But just know this; we're always happy to listen if you want to tell us about something." She reassured him. PJ nodded, looking at her gratefully through his fringe.

Poseidon sat down, badly shaken. He buried his face in his hands. 'What have I done? Now his sons were afraid of him.' He thought sadly.., 'He had failed as a father. He wasn't fit to be called a father.' He thought bitterly.

Theseus, Orion and Perseus were disturbed and angry. Theseus and Orion were angry because that was their little brother and Perseus because he really liked Percy…

But… the scariest reaction of all was from the future demigods.

Electricity was practically sparking from Thalia's body. The shadows thicken and flickered around Nico. There was a red glow around Clarisse. The plants lengthen and curled as if it wanted to strangle someone around Katie and Grover.

The Stoll brothers and Chris normally fun and mischievous smiles became malicious smirks. A golden aura–the blessing of Apollo- surrounded Will, the air becoming hot around him. Thick green smoke curled around Rachel, her eyes glowing eerily. Flames flickered and danced on Leo's body.

A pink aura- the blessing of Aphrodite- glowed around Piper, bringing with it the scent of perfume. Gold bars, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphire and all kinds of precious gems popped out like mushrooms after the rain around Hazel as she hurried to pick it up so that no one would suffer the curse while muttering about how she would love to give Gabe a few of it.

Frank's body flickered, as if he wanted to shift shape. Once they saw a silhouette of a dragon around Frank as if he wanted to devour Frank in dragon form.

An aura glowed around Reyna –the blessing of Bellona- as she clenched her dagger. Annabeth clenched her jaw, a grey aura –blessing of Athena- surrounded her as she grasped her knife tightly.

Out of everybody, Annabeth was the first to recover. She stood up abruptly causing everyone to look at her. "I'm going to look for Percy." She declared. "You guys stay here and read." "What! No way! I'm not staying here while you look for Percy!" Thalia argued. "Yeah. Percy's our friend too." The demigods protested. Annabeth shook her head, "Its best if I go alone. And Percy wouldn't want to see such a big group either. Besides, its best if this chapter is finished by the time I come back with Percy."

"But-" "No buts Thalia." Then in a softer tone, "Just stay here and read please." Annabeth asked, looking at them imploringly. With a sigh, they conceded. "Fine." they muttered grumpily.

Turning to the gods, Annabeth bowed to Zeus, "If you would excuse me my lord, I would like to look for my boyfriend." She said politely but in the kind of tone where you got the point that she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Zeus nodded and snapped his fingers, opening the doors to the throne room. Annabeth bowed again before turning around and heading out of the room to find Percy…

* * *

For the next few moments they stared at each other. No one knew what to do. Then Thalia broke the silence, "I… I guess that we should read?" her voice was unsteady and it was clear that she was trying to hold back tears.

Poseidon nodded and shakingly picked up the book and in a wavering unsteady voice which slowly got stronger, steadier and smoother as he read.

**meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out. **

PJ flinched; everyone noticed that and did their best to control their anger so that they wouldn't scare him further. Except for the arrogant jerks (Hercules, Luke and Octavian) of course, they were snickering to themselves about how PJ was a wimp.

"**I don't have any cash," I told him. **

They suppressed growls at this, remembering what Percy had shouted earlier. About being beaten up for not having money."

**He raised a greasy eyebrow. Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound. **

"Bloodhound?! I'll introduce him to Mrs O Leary. I'm sure she would like to meet a bloodhound." Nico muttered venomously.

**which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else. **

Athena gasped softly, as she realised why Sally had married Gabe. AJ might've realised that as well except for the fact that she was busy trying to comfort PJ.

"**You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. **

"He can count?" Rachel asked in mock surprise.

**Somebody expects to live under this roof, **

"Why that son of a bi-" Thalia cut herself off before she uttered the next word for the sake of PJ who was trembling like a leaf. "It's not even his house." The daughter of Zeus clearly wasn't pleased; judging by the sparks of electricity around her.

**he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right Eddie?"**

"Carry his weight. I'll show him carry his weight. Maybe he could stand in for Atlas. No the gods would never agree to that. Perhaps father would allow him to take over Sisyphus's job for a while…"

Those who overheard Nico scooted away from the son of Hades who was still muttering death threats under his breath.

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. **

"Well, at least someone's nice." Hestia said tentatively.

"**Come on Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here." "Am I right?" Gabe repeated. Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. **

"Who obviously has no backbone." Artemis uttered in disgust.

**The other two guys passed gas in harmony. **

"Gross." They muttered.

"**Fine." I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"Consider it done." Both Hermes and Dionysus said at the exact same time. Everyone stared at Dionysus weirdly. Hermes was fine, but Dionysus? Now that was just plain weird.

The god of wine twitched, "What?!" He snapped. "I'm not allowed to help demigods?" "No... Not that. It's just that the idea of you helping demigods is just..." Apollo gestured at Dionysus. "So absurd." Athena helpfully supplied. Dionysus rolled his eyes before returning his attention to his wine magazine. Trying to appear un concerned.

The gods glanced at each other briefly before Poseidon quickly resumed reading, wanting to finish the chapter as soon as possible.

"**Your report card came, brain boy!"**

"That would be Annabeth; not Percy. Literally." Chris remarked, trying to relive the tension. There were one or two chuckles, but that was all.

**he shouted after me. "I wouldn't be so sooty!"**

"How is that even sooty? He was just being sarcastic." Leo asked no one in particular in bewilderment.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study". **

"He has a brain?" Athena asked in mock amazement. "Amazing."

**He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, **

"Probably doing for the sake of annoying Percy." AJ murmured.

**but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my window sill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer. **

"It must've been because of this man that Perseus survived so long without being detected by monsters. Sally Jackson, you truly are special." Athena mused to herself.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home. **

"Sarcasm king." Percy's friends chorused at the exact same time. They shared a smile. "It wouldn't be too hard to unite both the Romans and the Greeks with Percy being common ground between us." Reyna mused.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs Dodds, or gthe sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn. **

"... Wow. That bad huh?" "You have no idea." PJ replied to Clarisse. "Trust me. Even the most horrible thing in the world won't be able to compare with Smelly Gabe." No one argued. Not even Hestia who always tried to see the good in everyone.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs went weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic –how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. **

"A promise that you broke." Grover remarked; expecting Percy to retort with sarcasm or something. It was only after Grover turned to see why Percy didn't respond did he remember; Percy wasn't in the throne room. Swallowing, Grover turned away, looking uncomfortable.

**A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone- something- was looking for me right now, **

The demigods tensed, automatically reaching for their weapons.

**maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long horrible talons. **

The gods and demigods fiddled with their weapons, Percy's detailed descriptions making them jumpy.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

Everyone relaxed. "Percy thought Sally was a monster?" Katie asked incredulously. "Well, you can't really blame him for being paranoid. Besides, for all we know it could be a rogue Cyclops." Thalia reasoned.

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted. **

"Aww... So sweet." The females cooed. Yes, even Artemis and Athena. They  
had been charmed by his devotion to his mother.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. **

Poseidon and those who had met her nodded their heads in agreement.

**Her eyes sparkle and change colour in the light. **

"Like Piper's." Jason noted. Normally he would have felt angry but somehow he just couldn't find the energy to be mad.

**Her smile is as warm as a quilt. **

"Just like my mother's smile." Leo remembered, a bitter smile forming on his lips.

**She's got a few gray streaks mixed in her long brown hair. **

"Sally has a lot more gray streaks now." Thalia muttered, low enough for only the demigods to hear. "Wanna bet that it's Percy's fault?" Will joked, but his smile quickly faded when he remembered that Percy wasn't with them.

**but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. **

"That has Sally written all over it." Poseidon commented, interrupting himself before quickly resuming reading to prevent the others from commenting.

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone **

Apollo whistled, "Wow. She's really patient."

**not even me **

Rachel frowned, "Why would Sally get mad at Percy anyway?" she asked no one in particular.

**or Gabe**

This time Apollo's jaw dropped, "WOW! She's a saint!"

"**Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

"Prissy was pretty short when he was twelve. So how short would he be when it was Christmas?" Clarisse asked with a smirk on her face which faded quickly when she didn't hear Percy's customary sarcastic response. Those who knew Clarisse well hid a smile. Contrary to what most people thought, she didn't hate Percy. Percy was an older brother to her.

**Her red-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, liquorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. **

"Dang. Percy's making us hungry." Complained the Stoll brothers (Jr and older)

**She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples", the way she always did when I came home. **

"Lucky." Whined the more immature gods and demigods on Olympus. *cough Apollo, Hermes, Stoll brothers (both jr and older,)Chris jr and older, Leo cough*

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, **

"Attack?! What!? Where?! Who?!" shouted Ares who heard his favourite word. "It's in the book you fool! Or is your brain too small to comprehend that?!" taunted Athena, making Ares growl in anger.

**She ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. **

Hera beamed, "Now, that's the perfect mother." She said cheerfully. "Everything that you're obviously not." Hephaestus muttered under his breath.

**She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled.**

Nico cracked a smile, "Something that Paul loves talking about." She snickered. "More like being curious if you asked me." Thalia chimed, making those who didn't understand the joke confused.

**She didn't seem to care about that. **

"Nope. That's Paul's job." Katie said with a small smile.

**But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

Ares sneered, "Momma's boy." He commented. Making PJ flush before scowling and glaring at Ares.

I wouldn't recommend mentioning that to Percy unless you want to sit through a lecture from him about being a momma's boy isn't bad at all." Will advised, shuddering slightly; as he remembered Percy lecturing him on that. Making the others smirk at Will, remembering Percy's rant.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, **

Artemis opened her mouth to comment about boys wanting to look macho and all that jazz but Thalia cut her off, "Lady Artemis-" she begun respectfully. "-that's just Percy's fatal flaw speaking out. He wants to protect his mother and not depend on her too much. He's not afraid of being seen in public hugging his mother and all that." She finished; shocking Artemis into silence. 'Was it possible for a boy to so kind, loyal and considerate?' she wondered.

**but secretly I was really, really glad to see her. **

Everyone looked at Artemis, expecting a comment about useless males but to their surprise she didn't. The goddess of the moon was still in deep thought.

**From the other room Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally- how about some bean dip, huh?"**

"Get some yourself!" surprisingly it was Hestia who yelled. The goddess of the hearth immediately blushed after that. Everyone stared in shock at the normally mild-mannered goddess before shaking their heads and returning their attention to Poseidon.

**I gritted my teeth. **

So did everyone else even though most of them didn't know who was Sally Jackson, she seemed like such a warm and kind person that they couldn't help liking her even if they haven't met her in person. Obviously the arrogant jerks didn't for they thought themselves above everyone else and that they Sally wasn't important enough for them.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, **

"Is a god good enough?" Poseidon joked, bring smiles to their faces/ "Well, Paul's no millionaire but he definitely makes Sally happy and Percy approves so it's probably fine." Thalia pointed out. Nico nodded, showing agreement with his cousin's statement.

**not to some jerk like Gabe. **

"Definitely not!" PJ protested.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. **

"Mom probably didn't buy that." PJ commented softly.

**I told her I wasn't to down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. **

"Close enough." PJ said while fighting off a yawn. Considering everything that had happened, it wasn't surprising that had the son of Poseidon was starting to tire and it wasn't even noon yet.

**I'd made some new friends. **

"More like a friend only." Grover said sadly.

**I'd done pretty well in Latin. **

'Which is rather weird for a Greek.' Athena mused. 'A Roman yes. But Greeks don't know Latin, so why does Perseus know it?' she asked herself.

**and honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. **

"Wow. That's quite a lie he's spinning." Will J stated in amazement.

**I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. **

"That's... just amazing!" Leo said or rather; shouted in his typical hyper activeness.

**I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

"That must've been quite a spin if the resident school bully could suddenly not seem so bad." Apollo commentated.

**Until that trip to the museum... "What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. **

"Percy's eyes can do that too." Hazel said. "So, I guess he inherited it from his mother then?" Reyna spoke out loud, voicing their thoughts.

"**Did something scare you?" "No, Mom."**

Artemis frowned, "He shouldn't lie to his mother." She said in clear disapproval at Percy's actions. "Don't be so hard on the boy Artemis." Hestia said chiding her niece gently. "He just doesn't want to trouble his mother." Artemis nodded her head, looking somewhat ashamed of herself.

**I felt bad lying. **

Artemis bit her tongue at this; feeling guilty.

**I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with yarn but I thought it would sound stupid. **

Poseidon frowned, "No it wouldn't. Sally's clear-sighted and would understand what you were talking about." He told his son. Completely forgetting the fact that PJ wasn't from that timeline.

Which PJ helpfully pointed out to his father, making said father blush in embarrassment. "Besides, -" the son of Poseidon said while stifling another yawn, "-what do you expect me to tell mom? Maybe I could say, 'Hey mom, do you want to know that mythological monsters are walking straight out of the pages of my Greek mythology textbook?'" he asked sarcastically. Poseidon looked somewhat embarrassed, "Well, when you put it like that..."

Perseus, Theseus and Orion shook their heads in disbelief at PJ wondering whether he was mad, back talking to a god just like that...

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, **

"Yeah. Mother's have that kind of instinct." Leo said wistfully. A faraway look in his eyes.

**but she didn't push me. "I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach." **

"Montauk." Percy's close friends and PJ said in perfect sync with each other. Ignoring the questioning looks they received, they gestured to Poseidon to continue reading. The god of seas abided.

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

Poseidon and PJ smiled wistfully at that.

"**Three nights-same cabin." "When?" she smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

"Yes!" PJ cheered. "We're going to Montauk! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh ye-" PJ stopped mid-sentence to yawn. Frowning in concern, Poseidon put the book down and headed over to PJ."

Sitting next to his son, -the others moving to make space for Poseidon- Poseidon pulled his son onto his lap. PJ tensed slightly when Poseidon touched him but he relaxed quickly and was replaced by a blush that spread all over his face, giving him the appearance of a tomato.

PJ knew most demigods would kill to have their godly parent do this to them but to PJ, it was just plain embarrassing. Squirming slightly he complained, "Dad I'm too old for this." Poseidon snorted, "Compared to me, you're just a baby." "So, basically you're admitting your old?" the son of Poseidon asked innocently. Sea-green eyes widened and blinked innocently at his father. His face was like an angel. A very sleepy angel that is; for Percy was yawning like crazy.

Poseidon chuckled at his son. "Just get some sleep Percy." He told him in amusement. PJ pouted, "Don't wanna. Not sleepy." He grumbled, sounding a lot like a little kid who had been told to go to sleep. Which was true in this case.

Ignoring his son's protests, Poseidon simply rearranged his son into a more comfortable position on his lap before asking Hades to pass him the book. The god of the underworld obliged.

Rolling his eyes at his father, PJ readjusted himself into an even more comfortable position on his father's lap. Knowing that Poseidon wouldn't be letting him go anytime soon. Yawning, he rubbed his eyes, trying to fight the sleepiness that threatened to overwhelm him.

Smiling softly at his son, Poseidon absent-mindedly pushed PJ's bangs out of his eyes. "Get some rest son." Poseidon told him. PJ didn't try to fight it any longer; he leaned against his father's chest, turning slightly; he buried his head in the crook of his father's neck and closing his eyes, he soon succumbed to sleep.

The last sensation that he felt before passing into the realm of Morpheus was the feeling of his father gently carding a hand through his hair. It was a very nice and soothing feeling... it made him feel... feel wanted...

Poseidon absent-mindedly carded his hand through his son's hair. It was silky smooth and soft. One would expect that it would be stiff and wiry because of the fact that Percy's hair was always messy and stuck up in all kinds of directions.

Sensing that his son had nodded off, Poseidon picked up the book with his free hand and finding the right page, he continued reading from where he had left off.

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money. **

They growled, but not too loud so that they wouldn't disturb the slumbering son of Poseidon.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally. Didn't you hear me?"**

There were growls and snarls but no one moved. Oh, they longed to go to Percy's house and kill Gabe there and then but they knew that they would end up changing the entire future. So no one did anything even though they wanted to.

**I wanted to punch him,**

"Punch him!" cheered Ares. Earning him a 'bath' and a dirty look from Poseidon for yelling.

**but I met my mom's eyes and I understood that she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a while. **

"Not that he deserves it." The demigods muttered darkly.

**Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here. "I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip." Gabe's eyes got small. **

Pig." Artemis said venomously. "Please, even a pig is more handsome than him." Surprisingly it was Aphrodite who said it. The goddess of love and moon shared a look before nodding to each other, a tentative truce forming between the two of them.

"**The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

"Of course she is. Mom never jokes about that." Chorused both Thalia and Nico. Their father's gave them sharp looks as well as Jason.

"What do you mean by mom?" Hades asked his son sharply. "You already have a mother. A wonderful one." Nico avoided his father's eye; preferring not to answer.

"Well, about you young lady? Care to explain why you called Poseidon's son's mother your mother?" Zeus questioned his daughter. Thalia, unlike Nico didn't avoid her father's eyes. "Why shouldn't I?" she challenged defiantly. "Because you already have one!" Zeus shot back.

"Yeah sure." The daughter of Zeus replied sarcastically. "Cause having a drunkard as a mother is perfect. She's the reason why I didn't keep my last name. Such a perfect mother." Zeus flinched but kept calm. His daughter did have a point after all.

Jason clenched his fists, feeling jealous all over again. 'Why was his sister calling Jackson's mother mom and not their mother mom.' Forgetting himself he voiced this out loud. Thalia frowned at her younger brother. "Jason, were you not paying attention earlier? And besides, you were too young to remember how horrible she was anyway." "So why don't you tell me!" he argued. Thalia gave him a stony look, indicating that she most definitely wouldn't be telling him anything.

"Stupid Jackson and his mother." He mumbled, but apparently he wasn't quiet enough; for Percy's friends heard him. They immediately whipped around and glared at him. Thalia gave him a dirty look, "I'll forgive you this time. But you better not say that again or you'll regret it." Warned Thalia, who sneaked a glance at Poseidon who looked like he wanted to strangle Jason...

Hades looked at his son in displeasure, "Well, boy? What do you have to say for yourself?" Hades asked Nico crossly. This time Nico wasn't afraid and looked at his father in the eye, pretty much copying Thalia's actions earlier. "Sure I have a mother. Maria di Angelo. But what good is that going to do? She's dead. It wasn't Maria who took care of me, threw a birthday party for me and brought me on a holiday. That was all Sally. Sally might not be my real mother, but she certainly acts like it." Nico said, defending Sally over his real mother.

Hades eyes flashed, displeased that Nico had chosen Percy's mother over his own. Feeling angry, Hades said something that he instantly regretted. He said, "I bet Bianca wouldn't choose someone else's mother over her own." Nico stiffened at that. Feelings and fears of insecurity and inadequacy crashed over him. And to add more salt to the injury Hades continued, "Your and ungrateful little brat. Your mother sacrificed own life for you and you don't even want to acknowledge her as your mother."

Nico flinched, tears welling up in his eyes. But he refused to let them fall. Not wanting to appear weak in front of everybody. Thalia then gave her cousin a hug, trying to convey some comfort to Nico. 'Oh, Annabeth; I hope you find Percy soon. Nico needs his older brother now. And so do I.' Deep down Thalia knew that it was selfish of her. Percy had enough troubles now; he didn't need any more problems to deal with...

Giving Thalia and Nico kind looks, Poseidon glanced down at PJ making sure he was comfortable before scowling at his brothers for their lack of tact. Even Ares knew better than to bring up things like this. Sighing internally, Poseidon continued to read...

"**I knew it." I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"Surprise, surprise." Clarisse J said sarcastically.

"**Of course he will." My mom returned evenly. Your stepfather is just worried about money. **

"We'll show him worried about his money." Said the Stoll twins and Chris at the exact same time.

"**That's all. Besides," she add, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. **

"Isn't it amusing that their talking as if Ugly isn't there?" Hermes asked. Making them smile faintly...

**Guacamole. Sour cream. The works." **

"That's really sad. Having to resort to bribing just to go on a trip with her son." Perseus said sadly.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip… it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

Aphrodite and Silena gasped, "A budget on clothes?! That's not allowed at all. Period." They said, looking scandalised. "Well it's not like the pig would pay for their trip." Pointed out Artemis.

"The words CLOTHES BUDGET SHOULD NOT EVEN EXIST AT ALL!" Aphrodite screamed, enraged. Her scream startled almost everyone in the room.

On his father's lap, PJ simply twitched ever so slightly. Not even stirring when Aphrodite screamed.

Thalia, Nico and Percy's close friends exchanged concerned looks. They knew that most people thought Percy was a deep sleeper. They were really wrong. Percy was a pretty light sleeper most of the time. Only when he was exhausted, he would sleep the whole day away and nothing short of the apocalypse would wake him. Other than Annabeth and Sally that is. Unfortunately, this happened quite frequently because Percy was so tired after a long day at camp…

Seeing how PJ didn't even stir when Aphrodite screamed meant that PJ was really exhausted. In other words, it confirmed their fears that Percy was abused. Not that they doubted PJ and Percy in the first place anyway…

"**Yes honey," my mother said. "And you won't take the car anywhere but here and back." "We'll be careful."**

"Oops." Grover said with a smirk. Remembering what happened to the car before paling, realising what was going to happen in the next chapter.

**Gabe scratched his double chin. **

"Charming isn't he." Chris J stated sarcastically.

"**Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layered dip… And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"Interrupted your poker game! He fu- I mean freaking sponsored it!" Frank hissed resisting the urge to yell for fear of waking PJ up.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. **

The males winced at this, silently hoping that Percy would do it to Gabe.

**And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"Like what Apollo does when his soft spot gets kicked?" Artemis asked innocently. They laughed at this and Apollo both blushed and glared at his twin sister.

"Ha, ha, ha. Very funny sis." Apollo winced after he said this, knowing that his sister hated being called sis. Surprisingly she didn't yell at him but said instead, "So why aren't you laughing then bro?" she teased, testing out the word bro at the same time. She realised that she liked her brother calling her sis because it gave her a sense of closeness to her twin…

Apollo stared at Artemis in shock before he smiled warmly at her. He could feel the pleasure that she had when he had called her sis. It was then that he realised that their twin-bond was starting to work again. He could sense his sister's feelings and to a certain extent, her thoughts. Their bond had been inactive for so long that it would take some time before they could hear each other's thoughts again…

Aphrodite's head shot up and she looked at Apollo and Artemis. The goddess of love grinned widely when she saw the long forgotten twin-bond flickering into life. People tend to forget that she was the goddess of love, which covered all kinds of love: whether it was love between siblings, friends, and lovers, family and for world; there was no difference, it was still love and therefore under her domain. No matter what kind of love it was, it still gave her a warm feeling when she it happened…

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad. Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"Don't we all want to know." Berkendorf muttered.

"**I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now." Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement. **

"Of course Ugly won't detect sarcasm. That's cause Percy's not being sarcastic at all." Piper said sarcastically.

"**Yeah, whatever," he decided. He went back to his game. "Thank you, Percy." My mom said. **

"Is that sarcasm or not?" Katie J's question went unanswered.

"**Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about… whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

"Nothing. Cause Percy didn't forget to tell anything. He just didn't want to. There's a big difference you know." Chris chimed in cheekily.

The atmosphere in the throne room was starting to lighten up…

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes –the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-**

"He's very observant isn't he?" Demeter said. Surprising everyone that she didn't go into a rant about how cereal could increase observation skills. Seems like she was really trying to change after what Percy had said.

**as if my mom to felt a strange chill in the air. But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. **

"Not good. He should trust his instincts more." Athena said wisely.

**She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip. **

"Mom's the only one who can still ruffle Percy's hair." Thalia said; purposely calling Sally mom to spite her father. Seeing the curious looks from the gods, younger demigods, Romans, the Lost Hero trio and the Heroes of Old; she elaborated, "Percy doesn't allow anyone shorter than him to ruffle his hair. Mom's the only exception to the rule." Will snickered, "Unfortunately Paul is shorter than Percy; so no ruffling Percy's hair for him."

Percy close friends chuckled at this. They had seen that happen in the Jackson-Blowfis household many, many times. It would be like on a weekend and Paul would come back after going out for a while; see Percy and try to ruffle the son of Poseidon's hair but never succeeded due to Percy being taller than him.

Thalia frowned when she realised that Nico wasn't laughing along. The lieutenant of Artemis bumped the son of Hades shoulder lightly, "You okay Nicky?" she asked in concern. Nico looked at his cousin listlessly, "M' fine Thals." He muttered.

Thalia didn't look convinced, "Don't lie Nico. You know as well as I do that you're not fine." Nico shook his head, "I'm fine Thalia." He repeated stubbornly. Seeing his cousin's incredulous look he continued. "I'm just tired."

Thalia still wasn't convinced; but she let it drop; sensing that her cousin didn't want to talk about it. "If you say so…"

**An hour later we were ready to leave. Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. **

"How considerate, not offering to help." Katie said sarcastically. –A lot of people seems to be catching the sarcastic bug don't you think?-

**He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking –and more important, his 78 Camaro- for the whole weekend. **

"I'm not surprised that his car is more important than Sally." Rachel said.

"**Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not a little scratch."**

"There wasn't a single scratch on the car. It might have something to do with the fact that it was destroyed." Grover muttered to himself in amusement.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. **

"Just proves that Ugliano doesn't have a brain." AJ commented.

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, hed find a way to blame me. **

Poseidon twitched slightly, as if the idea appealed to him.

**Watching him lumber back to the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I couldn't explain.**

"When can he ever?" Will joked.

**As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe.**

Athena raised her eyebrows, 'he picks things up very fast' she noted.

**The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. **

'Impossible!' though Hercules. 'if I can't do it then Jackson can't! A god must've been helping him. Yes! That must be it!' Poor Hercules… Not! He must be really naïve…

**Maybe it was just the wind,**

"That will only happen if you're a child of Zeus or Jupiter." Jason said. Causing pretty much everyone to look a him in surprise; that was the first thing that he said about Percy that wasn't negative.

**or some freak accident with the hinges, **

"Really Percy? Really? A freak accident with the hinges?" Thalia said incredulously.

**but I didn't stay long enough to find out. I got into the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

"Running away again…" whispered Will sadly. If it was about someone else Percy would always be there. He remembered when Michael had died and he had to be the cabin leader. Will had freaked out. He was stressed about not being as good as Michael and had fretted over everything. It got so bad that he fainted due to severe exhaustion.

Percy then took him aside, gave him a hug and helped him to understand that just because he was the leader didn't mean he had to do everything. Even though Percy was still grieving for lost comrades he still took time to comfort Will. But yet… when it came to his own problems; Percy would run away; try to forget about it…. Percy refused to let anyone help him.

**Our rental cabin, was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a pastel boy with faded curtains, half sunken in the dunes. **

Silena frowned. "It doesn't sound very charming." She stated. Katie smiled at that, "No it doesn't. but it is very homey." "How do you know?" "I've been there a few times." Katie replied to Silena.

**There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, **

Both Athena and AJ shuddered at that, 'Spiders.' They thought, looking around the room as if spiders were about to start pouring out from the shadows.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in. **

Thalia shivered, remembering her unofficial swimming lesson from Percy. Next to her, Nico smirked mischievously at his cousin. The daughter of Zeus glared at her cousin before zapping him lightly with a lightning bolt, making Nico's hair stick up like a porcupine. Everyone burst out laughing when they saw Nico's new look. Sans Hades who didn't look thrilled. Of course it was probably because of his long standing feud with Zeus.

Katie nudged her cousin, "Cool look Nic." She teased. The don of Hades bumped her shoulder affectionately at that, "Watch it Kat; or else I'll send some zombies after you." "I'm not scared Zombie Boy." "You will be dead soon Kit Kat."

Demeter screeched at that, "Your son just threatened to kill my daughter! I knew he was up to no good! Just like his father!" the goddess of harvest hissed angrily. Hades looked indignant, "Well, your daughter's just like you then. It's all her fault!" "What? How can it be her fault?!" "She provoked him! If she didn't provoke him then she wouldn't be threatened." "If!" Hades opened his mouth to retort but Nico cut in, "Stop this! It's just ridiculous! Katie wasn't provoking me!" "And Nico wasn't threatening me either. We were just joking mother." Katie said, defended her cousin.

Demeter scowled, "You are taking his side?!" she asked making the word 'him' sound like poison. Nico and Katie glanced at each other, before looking at their respective parents again. "Why can't a child of Demeter and Hades be friends?" Katie asked daringly. "What do our godly parents have to do with their children's' friendships anyway? Just because they don't like each other doesn't mean that their children have to be enemies. Percy and Annabeth are the perfect example of that. A child of Poseidon and a child of Athena who are not only friends but are dating! So what is that supposed to mean?! That they have to break up because their parents are rivals?!" challenged Nico.

Hades, Demeter, Hestia and the Olympians were silent at this. The gods begun to debate silently on Nico's words; the son of Hades did have a point…Poseidon cleared his throat uncomfortably before continuing to read…

**I loved the place. **

"So do we." Chorused Percy's friends who had been to Montauk before.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. **

Poseidon smiled at this; remembering the time he saw Sally on the beach….

**She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she met my dad. **

"Aww… So sweet." Silena and her mother cooed.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. **

PJ shifted in his sleep, "Mom." He mumbled.

**Her eyes turned the colour of the sea.**

'It's like she connected to the sea.' Artemis mused.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's window, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagull, **

There was a snort before they all burst out laughing.

**and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work. **

"Why is everything blue?" Leo asked curiously. There was no forthcoming answer but Poseidon seemed to be smirking.

**I guess I should explain the blue food. **

"Yes, you should." "Leo, you're talking to a book." "… Good point Pipes."

**See Gabe had once told mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. **

"But in classic Sally style; she won't let it go so easily." Chris chuckled**. **

**But ever since then, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. **

Chris had a smug 'I told you so' look on his face.

**She baked blue birthday cakes. **

Nico licked his lips at the reminder of his first birthday cake.

**She mixed blueberry smoothies. **

"One would be much appreciated now. An ice cold one preferably." Will murmured dreamily. Yeah, he was aware that it was December but he couldn't care less.

**She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs Ugliano- **

"Can't blame her can you? Who would want to be addressed as Ugliano anyway?" Leo pointed out.

**was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. **

"Who would?" Silena whispered to Berkendorf. Making the son of Hephaestus blush, she was almost sitting in his lap.

**She did have a rebellious streak like me. **

Rachel jerked; shocked. "Hold on! Did I hear that correctly? A rebellious streak like me?!" the Oracle of Delphi asked in shock. Thalia snorted, "If Percy has a streak it most definitely wouldn't be a rebellious streak but an obedient streak."

"Come to think of it, I would be surprised if he even has a streak." Thalia continued. Nico nodded, picking up his cousin's lie of thought, "Cause Uncle Seidon's really rebellious and mom's rebellious as well." "So Percy would be 99.999% rebellious and 0.001% obedient." Will concluded.

"Of course, his obedience level increases when it's Annabeth or mom asking him to do something." Thalia couldn't resist adding. They snickered at that; Thalia was absolutely correct. Percy tend to listen to Annabeth and Sally more than anyone else.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. **

"Fire!" Leo cackled gleefully.

**We roasted hot dogs and marshmallow. **

"Like our campfires." Piper noted. Katie shook her head. "It's far better than the campfire. Trust me."

**Mom told me stories about when she was a kid**

"Just like my mother…" Leo thought sadly.

**back before her parents died in the plane crash. **

Silence. Total absolute silence until you could hear the crickets chirping and it wasn't even night time yet. It was only 11am. Almost lunch time. Zeus risked looking at Poseidon in the eye and dropped his eyes almost immediately.

His older brother's eyes were so dark that it was no longer sea-green but black; pitch black. Poseidon glared at Zeus; storms were brewing in the god of seas eyes. Although it was clear that Poseidon was displeased with his younger brother, he still held his peace and refrained from saying anything even though he obviously wanted to.

Demeter on the other hand had no such reservations for she stood and walking over to her brother she gave him a hard slap across his face; the sound echoing in the throne room. Zeus's head snapped to the side and he touched his cheek; staring at his sister in wonder. Giving him one last glare, Demeter stalked away, going beck to her throne.

Smirking at his brother, Poseidon then continued to read.

**She told me about the books she wanted to write someday. **

The demigods shared grins. "Well, it looks like her dream has finally been fulfilled." Will stated with a broad grin that was almost as blinding as his father's own smile.

**When she had enough money to quit the candy shop. **

"I doubt that the Pig would have allowed her to stop working." Artemis muttered unslinging her bow from where it was slung over her throne's back and gripped it tightly; her entire body tense as if she wanted to grab her quiver and march down to Percy's house and shoot Gabe there and then.

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk**.

"So, he does have tact." Reyna exclaimed in mock surprise.

**my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. **

Once again Leo was surprised by how similar his mother and Percy's mother was…

**I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them. **

Leo felt a familiar tightening in his chest; Leo took a deep breath and willed his tears away. Not wanting to appear weak. But still… a few tears made their way down his cheeks which he quickly brushed away.

Leo fought the urge to cry like a baby. Hearing about Percy's mother brought back sad memories of his own mother.

"**He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Thalia nodded, "Uncle Seidon and Percy could probably pass off as twins." Poseidon blinked; confused. "Why do you keep calling me Uncle Seidon?" he asked his niece curiously. Thalia shrugged, "Well you are my uncle aren't you?" she pointed out.

Poseidon smiled kindly at Thalia, "I wasn't arguing with that Thalia. I was just asking why you call me Uncle Seido and not like Apollo, Hermes and the others who call me Uncle P." "Oh… that's easy; Uncle Seidon sounds cooler than Uncle P." the daughter of Zeus said cheerfully as if that cleared up everything… Well, to Thalia it probably did.

Poseidon shrugged. He couldn't care less anyway. Uncle Seidon was fine by him. He wasn't so sensitive about his titles unlike his brothers. She was just happy that Thalia felt comfortable enough to call him uncle. Readjusting PJ so that he wouldn't slip off his lap; Poseidon then resumed reading.

**Mom fished a blue jellybean out of her candybag. **

"I wonder, do we automatically connect everything with something from our godly parent's realm?" Chris asked. "I mean, look at Percy. He compares almost everything to the sea. And I know some children of Apollo who speak in rhyme when stressed out." The son of Hermes looked at Athena expectantly.

The goddess of wisdom didn't disappoint, "Well, it's probably because godly blood is stronger than mortal blood thus influencing the demigod to compare things to their godly parent's realm without meaning to." "Oh…" "Okay." "I get it now." Were among the various responses that echoed in the room.

**I wish he could see you, Percy. **

"I'm always watching you; Percy." Poseidon whispered. Carding his hand gently through PJ's hair.

**He would be so proud."**

"What kind of father would I be if I wasn't proud of my son." Poseidon muttered softly. Hearing his uncle's words; Nico felt sad; his father wasn't proud of him at all.

**I wondered how she could say that. **

"Well, it is the truth." Rachel pointed out.

**What was so great about me?**

"Everything" chorused Percy's friends. "A better question to ask would be what's so bad about him." Will smirked. "Well, there's the fact that he's a Kelp Head most of the time." Thalia said. "Is a maniac." Frank added. ""Rude." Reyna said with a smirk, remembering the time Percy had told off Octavian.

Octavian sniffed, "Praetor Percy has no respect at all." He said arrogantly. Katie rolled her eyes, "Oh go blow your nose Octopus. If you need tissue, I have some." But Katie didn't state it like a question but rather a hint to shut up.

Surprisingly the augur took the hint and shut up. After a few seconds Poseidon resumed reading.

**A dyslexic, **

"We all are. So why is he ashamed of it?" Travis J asked in confusion. "He isn't aware of that Travis." Katie J pointed out. Travis J flushed, "Oh… right. Good point."

**hyperactive boy**

"Now, doesn't that sound familiar Leo?" Piper asked the son of Hephaestus mischievously. Said demigod grinned broadly and gave her a thumbs up.

**with a D+ report card, **

"Well, that has Percy written all over it." Nico announced dramatically. Oh, he knew that Percy wasn't stupid. No; his cousin was really smart but just couldn't be bothered about exams. If Percy put a little effort into his studies, he was sure to excel.

**kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years. **

Hermes and his sons –sans Luke- whistled, "Impressive." They chorused.

"**How old was I?" I asked. "I mean... when he left?"**

Poseidon's grip on the book tightened.

**She watched the flames "He was only with me for summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin." **

Poseidon smiled softly at this, a wistful look entering his sea-green eyes.

"**But... he knew me as a baby."**

"Unfortunately no. And that's all your uncle's fault. With his paranoia and foolish laws." Poseidon grumbled. Zeus bristled, "Those foolish laws as you call them are very important." "Oh, really? What is their purpose then? To make our children hate us because they never see us?! To make them think that we don't care?!" Poseidon demanded to know. The god of skies faltered briefly but regained his composure quickly. Straightening his tie and pinstriped suit; he said, "Those laws are in place for a reason. To keep us from getting to close to our children." "And what's so bad about that?!" the god of seas continued to question his brother. Not satisfied with the meagre answers that he was getting. "Because I know that I'm most definitely not abandoning my children." Poseidon said firmly.

Zeus went silent. He didn't know how to answer his brother last question. Poseidon smirked, satisfied that his brother wouldn't be saying anything about his concern for Percy. Meanwhile, the demigods; especially the Heroes of Old was studying the gods thoughtfully. Orion and Theseus were surprised and pleased by their father's concern for them." Perseus shrugged, "He already knew that his father didn't care about him. So, nothing to be sad about."

Thalia on the other hand was trying her best to hide her sorrow. She already knew that her father didn't care much for her; but still... she thought that he did care even though it was a little bit. After all, he had saved her hadn't he?

Hercules was a totally different story. He agreed with his father's views on seeing their children. 'The gods weren't meant to be all cuddly with their children. They were supposed to be distant. That was made them so special; for they were visited by the gods themselves to be sent on quests. That was what made him so special.' Hercules thought arrogantly.

To him that was what the gods were for. To make him famous. Hercules liked to think that he was the most important demigod in the world. 'He was the strongest demigod around and not to mention; he was a son of Zeus. The king of gods. So, as the strongest demigod in the world wouldn't that make him the king of demigods?

Yes, that certainly had a nice ring to it. Hercules, the king of demigods, the most powerful demigod of all times. Father will definitely appoint me as a god. He could already envision it; sitting at his father's right hand. Giving him advice. Why, he would be the most important on Olympus. Next to his father of course.' Hercules continued to design his perfect little daydream in his head.

"**No honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born." **

Poseidon glared at Zeus, 'It's all his fault.' He thought crossly.

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember... something** **about my father.**

Poseidon jerked, surprised, 'Percy can remember me visiting him?' he mused in wonder.

**A warm glow. A smile. **

Poseidon smiled the same smile that he had smiled so many years ago at his slumbering son. PJ mumbled something unintelligible and clenched his father's t-shirt before shifting until his head was lying on Poseidon's arm. Poseidon smiled fondly at PJ before carefully rearranging PJ's limbs so that his son's head was resting on Poseidon's thigh and PJ's legs were lying on the couch. Using one hand to hold the book, Poseidon used the other to card through his son's hair...

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom never said it out right, but still, I'd felt it must be true. **

Poseidon winced, he'd always tell himself that he didn't visit Percy because he wanted to protect his son. But deep down, he knew that he was just lying to himself. He was scared that Percy would hate him for not being around. Now, he knew better.

**Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me... I felt angry at my father. **

Poseidon stuttered slightly at this. He wished that he had taken Percy's advice and passed the chapter on to someone else.

**Maybe it was stupid, **

"Not it's not..." Rachel whispered softly. She knew what it felt like to be ignored by one's father. Her father did it all the time. Sure, Poseidon did his best to make up for it but it would never be able to erase the hurt that Percy had felt when he was younger. Rachel knew, she was speaking from personal experience... except that her father had never changed long enough to ease some of Rachel's hurt...

**but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, **

"Ocean voyage to where? Atlantis?" Apollo joked.

**for not having the guts to marry my mom. **

"I'm afraid your dad's already married; Percy." Hermes quipped.

**He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

Poseidon flinched, "I'm so sorry baby. I failed you and your mother. If only you had accepted my offer Sally..."

'That's what happens when they break their oaths. Their children suffer and not the gods themselves.' Luke thought furiously; some of his anger showing on his face. Almost immediately he heard Kronos's voice in his head. "_Easy now boy. Blank out your features. Don't let them see your rage. Smile, act normal. Do you understand?!" "Yes my Lord." _Luke replied mentally. Plastering a fake smile on his face, he pretended to be listening attentively to Poseidon.

"**Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school? She pulled a marshmallow from the fire. **

"Aww... it didn't commit suicide." Pouted Connor. Those who didn't understand –which was pretty much 90% of the room- stared at him as if the son of Hermes was nuts. Completely off his rocker.

But the campers of Camp Half Blood –sans Leo and Piper- understood what Connor was talking about perfectly and started cracking up. But to their complete astonishment, Hazel, Frank and Reyna cracked up as well.

Seeing the curious looks, Percy's Roman friends clarified; "Percy told us about that." "Oh..." was the response of Percy's Greek friends.

"**I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. **

"How does one's voice sound heavy?" Leo asked. Although he asked no one in particular he did look at Athena when he asked the question. Athena was the goddess of wisdom after all. So, if anyone could answer his question it would be her.

Athena shrugged, "I suppose it would be how the voice sounds." The goddess of wisdom sounded uncertain. Ares' jaw dropped open; "What! The goddess of wisdom doesn't know something! Quick! Call the press! This is incredible news!" he mocked.

Athena scowled at Ares. "I suppose that you would know; since you're all high and mighty now." She said coldly. "Umm..." the god of war clearly did not know the answer to Leo's question.

Athena smirked; "Very eloquent Ares. I suppose that 'Um...' would be the correct answer to the son of Hephaestus question wouldn't it?" the god of war flushed but didn't say anything. His pride was wounded enough already.

"**I think... I think we'll have to do something." "Because you don't want me around?"**

Hera frowned, "That's really rude of him." She said crossly. But Percy's friends knew better. 'That's probably his inferiority complex speaking out' was the thought that crossed their minds.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out. My mom's eyes welled with tears.**

"Women. Always using their tears against you." Muttered all the players, married men and those with girlfriends in the throne room. The women all rolled their eyes as one at that. "Men. Always pretending to be so macho"

**She took my hand and squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

Poseidon bit his lip. He wanted to hate Sally for being stubborn. If she had accepted his help then; Percy wouldn't be abused. But yet... he knew how much it pained her to send Percy away all the time. He knew because she would pray to him every night. Ask him to watch over Percy. To keep their son safe.

But never once did she ask him to help her. No. She was to stubborn. To proud. Sally wanted to be independent and that was her most endearing quality. He had been attracted to her strength, her spirit. In , many ways she was like him. Poseidon knew that if he was in her position; he would do the exact same thing she did.

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said –that it was best for me to leave Yancy. "Because I'm not normal, I said. **

"True. I mean; even in demigods terms he's not normal." There was a murmur of agreements to what Travis had said.

"**You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. **

Rachel grinned, "Never be afraid of being strange." She laughed. Unfolding her arms to show her t-shirt's quote.

**But you don't realise how important you are. **

Frank and Hazel nodded, "He was very important on our quest." They said at the exact same time. The two Romans looked at each other; blushed and turned away.

**I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe." **

Clarisse snorted, "Prissy doesn't know the meaning of safe." Although her words and tone were harsh; if you listened closely you could hear the underlying affectionate tone.

"**Safe from what?"**

"Oh, I don't know. Monsters that hate you." Connor stated. "Evil titans who want to kill you." Travis continued. "Giants who wants to see you dead." This time it was Frank who contributed. "And not to mention your crazy uncles." Poseidon ended. Making said uncles glare at Poseidon.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me -all the weird** **and scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I tried to forget. **

PJ whimpered softly in his sleep. His face contorted into a frown. "No, no, no." He mumbled; tossing and turning uneasily. Worried, Poseidon begun to rub circles on PJ's back gently. Trying to sooth PJ back to sleep. It worked and PJ was lulled back to sleep. Double checking that PJ was fine; Poseidon resumed reading while continuing to rub circles on PJ's back.

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. **

Poseidon tensed slightly.

**When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, **

Poseidon relaxed.

**but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man had only one eye, right in the middle of his head. **

Poseidon was worried, 'that's not good. I know I never sent a Cyclops to check on Percy'

**Before that –a really early memory. I was in pre-school, and a teacher accidently put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. **

'Accidently my foot.' Leo thought. 'It's probably a monster.' He remembered the time Hera or rather Tia Callida had 'accidently' put him in the fireplace for a nap. Or that was what she had told his mother.

**My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands. **

Hercules scowled, he did not like it when other people achieved what he had done. Octavian nodded to himself, 'Good. An excellent praetor should be strong even from the crib.' He thought. –this guy changes his opinions a lot don't you think?-

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, **

"I don't think the Fates appreciate being called the old ladies at the fruit stand." Hermes remarked rather randomly. Luke rolled his eyes mentally at his father's childishness but made sure not to show his annoyance on his face.

**and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling that the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that. **

"Oh, yes. Lie to your mother just for the sake of spending more time at the place where your father met your mother. Foolish." Hera said disapprovingly.

But the demigods didn't feel that way. They knew how rare it was for a demigod to have a mortal parent who was willing to talk about their godly parent.

"**I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said, "They told me it was a mistake. **

"Who's the they?" Will J asked his older counterpart. Will shrugged, "Dunno." He replied.

**But there's only one other option, Percy –the place your father wanted to send you. **

'not wanted. I wanted Percy to stay with me in Atlantis but Sally refused to stay in Atlantis as well and I could deprive my son of his mother. Not that this is any better. Depriving Percy of his father. Oh, Sally. If only you accepted my offer. So many things could have been avoided.' Poseidon reflected sadly.

**And I just can't stand to do it. "My father wanted to send me to a special school?" "Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"Camp Half-Blood." The campers of said camp chorused proudly.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad –who hadn't even stayed long enough to see me born- talk to mom about a summer camp?**

"Because I wanted to keep you safe." Poseidon whispered to PJ.

**And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before? "I'm sorry Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good." **

"She's afraid Percy will like the camp more and wouldn't want to go home bet be an all year-round camper." Both Travis and Connor J said at the exact same time.

"**For good? But if it's only a summer camp..." she turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her anymore questions she would start to cry. **

"Women." Ares said while rolling his eyes. Aphrodite promptly smacked him, "Excuse me!" "What do you want woman?!" the god of war asked grumpily. Aphrodite sighed, "Nothing." She said, turning away; disappointed.

**That night I had a vivid dream. **

"When are his dreams not vivid anyway?" Travis said rhetorically. "Agreed. Percy could probably replace me as the oracle." Rachel said. "Nah, Percy wouldn't become the oracle. After all, he is a lot more straight forward in prophecies. Not that he prophecies anyway." Will stated.

And for some weird reason the Romans sans Jason and Octavian begun to snicker. While Octavian started to mutter about straight forward prophecies and who knows what else.

Apollo on the other hand looked thoughtful. 'Could it be? Maybe... he does look a bit like her. But Percy looks a lot like Uncle P so that's hard to tell. Still... if what Will says if true than maybe... just maybe. He could be it...'

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse **

Will couldn't resist, "It's too late for you and your white horse to catch me now," the son of Apollo sang. "And that was White Horse by Taylor Swift. He announced cheerfully.

**and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. **

Dionysus rolled his eyes, "So father and Uncle P are fighting again. What else is new." Even as the last syllable had left the god of wines mouth; his attention was already back in the wine magazine held in his hands. If it, wasn't for the fact that it was undeniably Dionysus's voice, they would have thought that it was someone else speaking.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muscles with its huge talons. **

Zeus opened his mouth, probably to make a victory cry or something but Poseidon didn't allow him to.

**The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. **

Zeus promptly shut his mouth. Not wanting to make a fool out of himself.

**As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckling somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder. **

The children of Kronos and Rhea shuddered at the implication of who it might be. "Please tell me that it was you, Hades." Poseidon muttered to his older brother. The god of the underworld swallowed, "I certainly hope so." He replied, his voice equally soft.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. **

Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus exchanged looks. The animosity between them forgotten for the moment. They want to believe that it was all Hades' fault; but everything was pointing to their father at current.

**I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No! I woke with a start. **

They relaxed at this, releasing their breath. They hadn't even noticed that they were holding their breath...

**Outside, it was really storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. **

"In other words; a hurricane." Reyna announced cheerfully.

**There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery. **

Ares grinned maniacally, "Interesting comparison." He said gleefully.

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide and said, "Hurricane." I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. **

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Shame on you uncle. Forgetting the hurricane timing so easily." Hermes said jokingly wagging his forefinger at Poseidon.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry tortured sound that made my hair stand on end. **

Poseidon stiffened, he knew that sound. It was the sound of the Minotaur bellowing in frustration. He wished that he had not been so proud. Then the Minotaur would have never existed. This was his fault.

Theseus, like his father had stiffened when he heard his father read those words. Memories of his fight with the Minotaur flashed in his mind. Clenching his hands into fists, he worked on keeping his breathing even. Perseus and Orion who were sitting beside him touched his shoulders in concern. "Are you alright brother?" Orion asked; worried. Theseus smiled tentatively at his brother and Perseus, "I'm fine. Just... bad memories." They didn't enquire further; sensing that he didn't want to talk about it.

Hercules sneered, 'Good riddance. They were getting too sappy for me anyway. I'm so smart. Getting rid of the wimps before they ruined my reputation' he thought proudly.

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. **

"I wonder how he knows how that sounds." Chris J wondered out loud.

**A desperate voice –someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door. My mom sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

"Just like that? It could have been a serial killer for all she knew." Ares grunted. Athena rolled her eyes, "Are you deaf or what? It states that it was a desperate voice. Or is your brain capacity to low to comprehend that?" this time it was Athena mocking Ares and not the other way around. Poseidon quickly read on to avoid a fight between Ares and Athena.

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't exactly... he wasn't exactly Grover. **

"Oh? So this is when you unexpectedly lose your pants?" Apollo asked. Both Grover and his younger counterpart blushed bright red at the same time.

"**Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

"Nothing. As per usual." Thalia joked cheerfully. Although the daughter of Zeus knew that she was wrong. Like Nico, she was aware that Percy was smart but just couldn't be bothered about exams.

**My mother looked at me in terror –not scared of Grover, but why he'd come- **

"So, it's not cause of your - Yikes!" Apollo glared at his sister who had shot an arrow right between his legs and was currently watching him in amusement. Looking at his sister; he didn't see the animosity that was normally in her eyes. No. Instead, he saw a sparkle in her eyes. A sparkle that he hadn't seen in a long time...

"**Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me." I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. **

"Does he ever?" Hazel said dramatically.

"**O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. **

Reyna looked confused, "What does that mean?" she asked Katie politely. "It means –_insert translation-" _ "Oh, okay. Thanks."

"**It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?" I was to shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I understood him perfectly. **

Travis, Connor, Chris and their younger counterparts shared grins, "Very handy for passing notes in class." They chorused. Hermes beamed at them; giving them a thumbs up. Watching them; Luke felt a prickle of jealousy. Hermes had never paid attention to him but would pay attention to those losers?!" he could feel Kronos' delight. '_Yes! Yes! The Olympians deserve to die don't they?' 'yes, my lord they certainly do.' _

**I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on- **

"Oh... so this is when Grover unexpectedly loses his pants." Apollo said in a professor kind of tone as if he had a great revelation.

**and where his legs should be... where his legs should be...**

"Oh, hurry up! The suspense is killing me!" Leo cried.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before "Percy. Tell me now." I stammered something about old ladies at the fruit stand, **

"The Fates Percy. The Fates." Apollo said patronisingly.

**and Mrs. Dodds, **

"Alecto to be precise." Nico said softly.

**and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashs of lightning. **

"Like Death Breath here?" Thalia joked; nudging her cousin lightly. She got a smile from him; but that was all.

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

"Now that's a rare sight. Sally ordering people around." Travis said.

**Grover ran for the Camaro -but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shagging his shaggy hindquarters, **

*... then ...* "Ha, ha, ha!" guffaws, chuckles, snickers, giggles and all kinds of laughter echoed throughout the throne room. The Grovers turned bright red. 'Why did Percy have to include that part.' The satyrs thought.

**and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. **

"Amazing! Let's call the press. Prissy knows something!" Clarisse said, oddly cheerful.

**I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hoofs. **

"Thus, the name Goat Boy was created." Thalia announced dramatically. Grover on the other hand breathed a sigh of relief. The spotlight was off him. Until the next chapter that is.

After the last comment was made there was an awkward silence that followed. Finally, Zeus cleared his throat; attracting everyone's attention to him. "I think that it would be for the best of the rest of the day and tomorrow is a free day. We won't be reading until the twenty-second." He announced.

There were murmurs of approval and agreements at that. There was another awkward silence that was soon broken by Thalia. The daughter of Zeus stood up, and called her friends, "Well; come on guys. Let's go and look for Percy. Annabeth should have found him by now."

Her friends agreed, but as they stood up; suddenly, there was a bright flash of light; blinding everyone momentarily. And when the spots that danced before their eyes disappeared, they blinked as they took in their newest arrival.

* * *

**Deng, deng, deng, deng... Who will their new arrival be?What was Apollo rambling about? And what was going on with Percy and Annabeth while the others were reading? I'll give you guys a small teaser; the next chapter is about Percy and Annabeth while the reading was going on. The chapter after that... well, you'll have to review and see. *Evil laugh***

**Anyway, on to other matters. I'm so SORRY that I took so long to post this chapter. But I was like; super busy. And I'm afraid that you're not going to get your next chapter too soon. I have an exam on the 20****th**** so yeah. Got to study. I'm trying my best anyway. And hopefully I'll give you your next chapter after my exams. **

**Oh, and can you believe that the Son of Sobek has been released?! When I found out that it would be released as bonus material in The Serpent's Shadow; I nearly cried. I already have the book. **** So, anyone who has the Son of Sobek could you pm me the story? Please... I'm thinking of a brief crossover between PJO and KC so I'm going to know how Percy and Connor met and all that stuff. **

**The poll results are out: Sally and Paul will be joining our heroes at the end of the book. And Percy will be able to cook. How good of a cook will he be, well...you'll just have to wait and see. **

**I would like to give all of you who reviewed a big hug. Your reviews really made my day. I would also like to thank everyone who sent me a good luck for my piano theory exam. I got a freaking DISTINCTION! 94%! WOOHOO! Also, I went for a choral speaking competition on the 16****th**** of April and my school won FIRST PLACE! So, we'll be going for the inter-state competition somewhere soon. Wish us luck. **

**Peace out: Leebecky06 **


	5. Unpleasant Truths Revealed

**Hi people! I'm back! This is one of the many filler chapters I have planned. Hope you enjoy. :D **

**This chapter is dedicated to all Swifties around the world. I just **** listening to her songs while writing. It feeds my muse. **

**More Percy whump in this chapter. *Cackles evilly* I'm really evil to Percy aren't I? *Cue cheeky grin***

**The authoress also apologizes for her atrocious grammar that probably makes readers wince. But I'm afraid that grammar is just not my forte. *Sheepish grin***

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO and HOO. All rights go to Rick Riordan. Don't own Taylor Swift either. All rights go to her. I'm not earning money from this so don't sue. Unless you count getting reviews as money.**

**Now, onwards with the story! *Nibbles nails nervously. What if you guys don't like it! AHH!***

* * *

**Olympus 20****th**** December 1996-11:00 a.m.**

**Annabeth's P.O.V.**

Annabeth slipped out of the throne room and looked around. The door had closed behind her. 'Okay, think Annabeth. Where would Percy go when he's upset? The beach? But there's no beach on Olympus. Thalia's tree? Okay. Assuming the Percy would be somewhere like Thalia's tree where would that be? A pine tree or a big tree. Where to find one?' then; it occurred to her.

'The garden behind Demeter's temple! There's a huge tree in the middle of the garden. It's worth a shot.' And with that thought in her mind; she started running there.

Upon entering the garden; she headed straight towards the tree in the centre of the garden. The garden was beautiful; it had all kinds of flowers in it. Morning Glories, Sunflowers, Orchids, etc. , etc. you name it, the garden has it. But Annabeth paid no heed to the beauty of the garden. Her only interest was to find her boyfriend.

As she approached the tree, she heard singing. Someone was singing softly. He's or she's voice was beautiful but at the same time it was sad. As if the singer was crying. By the sounds of it; the voice sounded like it was coming from the tree. Creeping softly forward she saw that the mysterious singer was actually her boyfriend. The one and only Percy Jackson. The son of Poseidon was leaning against the tree trunk; knees pulled up to his chest, head resting on it, his arms hugging his legs. It made Percy look very vulnerable.

Annabeth felt her heart break at the sight of Percy crying. It had just occurred to the daughter if Athena that she had never seen Percy cry before. He had always been the strong one. The one you could always depend on.

Now; she realised that it was all a façade. Percy had been faking it all along for their sake. Percy had become someone he wasn't just to please them. They had put him on a pedestal and blamed him when he didn't meet their expectations.

Annabeth felt the guilt crashing down on her heart as she realised that everything that she had thought she knew about Percy was wrong. She thought she knew Percy well but… she was wrong all along. The Percy she thought she knew was only a mask. She had barely even scratched the surface of Percy's life. Truthfully; she didn't even know much about Percy. And they had been friends for around six years already.

Percy knew a lot about her. He knew her favourite book, her favourite colour, her ambitions, her life, her fears; he could read her like an open book. But how much did she know about Percy? She knew his favourite colour was blue, she knew that he feared the death of his friends, not being able to protect them. But she didn't know any more than that. She didn't know about his life except that he had a tough one, she never knew he had a horrible stepfather, she didn't know all of his fears, she didn't know his ambitions, his favourite book… She didn't even know whether he read books or not…

Annabeth let out a soft sob. Tears begun to stream down her cheeks… slowly she emerged from behind the tree, she needed to confront Percy about this.

**Olympus 20****th**** December 1996- 10:30 a.m.**

**Percy's P.O.V. **

Percy ran out of the throne room. He was horrified and furious by what he had just revealed. He had carried those secrets for years, never telling anyone. Not even his mother. No one had ever noticed. Gabe had never hit him in noticeable places and even if he did; Percy would cover it up with makeup.

For the more serious injuries Gabe would wait until his mother was too busy and couldn't come home for a few days. Gabe would then beat him up before lying off him for a while and by the time his mother was back the worst of his injuries would have already healed enough to conceal and Percy would cover up the rest and his mother was none the wiser.

Shaking his head to get rid of those unpleasant thoughts, he realised that he had been standing in front of the throne room's door like an idiot -'Cause that's what I am' Percy thought bitterly- for the past few minutes. He panicked, 'What if someone was going to come after him! He didn't want to see anyone at current. He needed somewhere to hide and he needed to find it fast!' then it struck him.

'The garden behind Demeter's temple! There's a tree there where I can just hide and hopefully forget about everything else.' He preferred to go to a beach of course. But it's not like there's any beaches on Olympus.

With that thought in mind, he took off like a bullet heading towards the garden.

Percy stumbled through the garden and upon reaching the tree, he simply plopped down, leaned back against the tree trunk and pulled his knees up to his chest, rested his head on them; hugged himself and begun to cry softly. –Closing his eyes; Percy could imagine that he was back at Camp Half-Blood and was sitting at Thalia's tree-

As he cried, bad memories returned unbidden. 'Five years old. Slaps and cuffs. Six, it started to get more intense. Seven, it was punches and kicks. Gabe wasn't playing nice anymore. Eight, the daily beatings started. Nothing major and never noticeable places. Nine; belts, burns, knives whenever his mother was busy. Very minor. No lasting damage. Ten, Gabe discovered his ability to recover quickly. Things escalated from there.' Percy shuddered at this. The only thing that he was really grateful to Hera was that when she wiped his memories she wiped away all of the bad memories as well.

Percy trembled as he thought about his birthday 'gifts' from Gabe. His eleventh birthday 'gift' was the worst of all. He still remembered it like it had happened yesterday.

**~*Flashback Sequence Start*~**

Percy and Sally had just come back from a nearby cafe where they had Percy's birthday dinner when suddenly Sally received a call. It was from work. His mother had to take over a shift from a colleague who couldn't make it and was asking Sally to take over for her. He still remembered that conversation. "Jackie honey; I'm sorry but I have to take over my colleague's shift and I'll be sleeping over at a friend's place. I'll try to be back by lunchtime tomorrow okay?" Percy nodded, "I understand mom. -He offered her a fake smile that she didn't notice- Go on then. I'll be fine." Sally looked concerned. "Are you sure?" "Absolutely." Percy announced cheerfully. Giving his mother the patented 'Jackson smile.' –It was a fake one but his mother didn't need to know that…-

A few minutes later Sally was dressed in her Sweet on America uniform. Giving Percy a kiss on his forehead, she then left the apartment. The second the door closed, Percy heard an oily voice speak. "Well, now that the b***h has left I suppose that it's time for me to give you your birthday gift." He had a malicious smirk on his face. One that promises pain. His 'stepfather' then started to fiddle with his pants. ***Mind out of the gutter people* **

Although he was scared, it still didn't stop Percy from speaking up in defense of his mother. "Hey! Don't you dare call my mother that! She's a thousand times better than you! You're just a mean bastard!" he shouted at Gabe; his fists clenched tightly.

Gabe looked up slowly and stared at the son of Poseidon, "What did you just call me?!" he demanded. The vile man didn't even give Percy a chance to reply but instead instructed him, "You know the procedure boy. So get MOVING! You're going to pay for your remark." Percy didn't budge. A defiant look on his face.

Gabe scowled, "MOVE BOY!" he yelled. Brandishing the object that he had been fiddling with his pants for. Percy felt his blood run cold as she saw what Gabe was holding in his hand. His so called stepfather's favourite torture device. A leather belt and judging by the way Gabe was holding it, was pretty clear that he intended to use the belt buckle.

"Well boy?! Are you going to do it or do I have to do it for you?!" trembling, Percy hastened to do the 'procedure'. Percy quickly pulled his t-shirt off, -wincing as he did so because he had accidently reopened his numerous wounds- and placed his hands –palms down, raised above his head- on the wall. Percy was shaking like a leaf as he stood there, tensing himself for the strike that was sure to follow.

Sure enough, a few seconds later Percy heard the all too familiar sound of the belt swishing through the air. –Swish. Thwack! - followed by the sound of leather and metal hitting flesh. "Ngh!" Percy bit back a scream; he refused to give Gabe the pleasure of hearing his screams.

Gabe scowled, he wanted the brat to scream, shout and beg for mercy. But Percy refused to give Gabe that satisfaction. Enraged, Gabe put more power into the whips. –Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!- the sounds of Gabe whipping Percy's back increased in both volume and frequency.

Tears begun to stream down Percy's cheeks but he still refused to give Gabe the pleasure of hearing his cries of mercy. Gabe whipped him one last time. This whip was stronger than the others and actually managed to strip some skin from Percy back. "GAH!" It hurt like crazy but Percy refused to beg for mercy.

Frustrated, Gabe dropped the belt; stepped forward and punched Percy from the side; hard! The son of Poseidon went flying and crashed into the wall next to the door and lay there dazed. Moving over to where the demigod was lying, he dragged Percy by his arm before slamming young Perseus into a wall next to a chest of drawers.

Keeping one hand on Percy, Gabe opened one of the drawers and took out a knife. Percy's eyes widened and he struggled to escape. Caressing the blade almost lovingly, Gabe then started to carve words on Percy's chest.

Freak was the first to be carved. "A freak is a person who's weird. Who shouldn't exist at all. Just like you." Gabe said. Next, he carved Stupid. "An idiot like you who will never go far in life." And last but not least; Useless was carved. "You are useless. No one will ever want you. You will have no friends at all. You will be alone forever." Gabe whispered menacingly. He cackled evilly.

Tears streamed down Percy's cheeks as Gabe released him. The son of Poseidon slumped down to the floor. Gabe sneered at him and gave the son of Poseidon a departing kick as he left but not before leaving one final message for him. "Make sure you clean up your mess you Stupid Useless Freak. And don't you dare tell that b***h you call your mother about this. Or else…" he trailed off menacingly.

Percy merely whimpered and curled into a ball. Gabe left with a satisfied smirk. 'Perhaps next time I could invite some of my friends to join in the fun. I'm sure that they'd enjoy the… relieve. Or maybe I could just keep him for my own pleasure. His body is quite desirable after all.' And with that horrible thought in mind Gabe strode off to the bedroom to have a nap.

Meanwhile, back in the living room, Percy wasn't doing so well. The son of Poseidon had uncurled himself from the ball that he had curled into. Somehow managing to stumble to his feet, Percy limped to the bathroom to clean himself up. Upon reaching the bathroom, Percy took off his bloodied pants and boxers before stepping into the shower, the water ran red with the son of Poseidon's blood. Absentmindedly watching the water healing his wounds, Percy couldn't help thinking of Gabe's words. 'Am I a freak? A stupid and useless freak? Is that who I am? Mom always told me I was special. Is special just a nicer way of calling me a freak?' He questioned himself. Percy was confused. Gabe had messed with his head and now he couldn't tell the real from the fake… 'I…I guess it must be true in a way. After all, it has been written… on my chest. Not on paper. Guess I'll always be the odd one out.' Percy thought bitterly.

Although the water had healed his injuries, it still left scars for those that were too deep for the water to heal completely. Turning off the water, Percy then put his boxers, pants and his t-shirt –He had picked his t-shirt up before heading to the bathroom- on grimacing as he did, 'Hey, it's not very nice to put back on a pair of bloodied pants and boxers.' He'd prefer to put on a fresh pair but had long learned that it was best to wear the bloodied clothes rather than a fresh pair for clean-up. Percy then left the bathroom, not limping as severely as before.

Heading back to the living room, Percy surveyed his 'mess' mentally cataloguing what had to be thrown out and what had to be cleaned. With a soft sigh, Percy walked into the kitchen and grabbing a few old cloths, he dampens them and started cleaning the living room…

**~*Flashback Sequence End*~**

As Percy came out of his memories he could have sworn for a moment that Gabe was standing in front of him grinning maliciously. Percy's breathing quicken as he begun to hyperventilate. Blinking furiously and taking deep breaths at the same time helped to calm him down. As he reopened his eyes he realized that Gabe had merely been a figment of his imagination for there was no one standing there.

Blinking away the tears that threatened to fall, Percy thought of his favourite singer Taylor Swift. Her songs had always seemed to connect to him. It was as if she had read his mind or something. One of the songs that leapt to his mind at current was a song called Eyes Open. Unbidden, the lyrics started to play in his head and as it did he begun to sing along. As he sang, images and memories flashed by. Thoughts of how accurate the song was. How it matched his life perfectly…

**Everybody's waiting**

Just waiting for me to mess up.

**Everybody's watching**

Watching for flaws.

**Even when you're sleeping**

They're still watching.

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Always be careful of the one whom you call a friend.

**The tricky thing is yesterday we were just children**

I used to be so naïve; so innocent. Believing that there was good in everybody.

**Playing soldiers**

I used to want to be a hero when I grew up. Now I'm one and I'm nothing more than an expendable pawn.

**Just pretending**

Make believe. Never thought that it would become real one day.

**Dreaming dreams with happy endings**

There's no happily ever after for the hero in the real world. Even if you're named after one of the few heroes to get a happy ending.

**In backyards, winning battles with our wooden swords**

Now I fight with a real one.

**But now we've stepped into a cruel world**

Expectations; stereotypes. Those kind of things.

**Where everybody stands and keeps score. **

I mistake and you're dead. Thrown to the wolves.

**Keep your eyes open. **

One can never be too cautious.

**Everybody's waiting for you to break down**

He was in first grade. Cornered by a group of bullies. They were taunting him about his lack of a father. Standing around, waiting for him to break down crying. He never did… he just stood there and accepted the insults. The slurs and taunts. He was… numb.

**Everybody's watching to see the fallout **

Like vultures waiting for a meal.

**Even when you're sleeping, sleeping **

Those nights in the Hermes Cabin were horrible. Not knowing who my friend was and who wasn't. Who I could trust…

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Always watch out for the knife that threatens to stab you in the back when you least suspect it.

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Trust no one but yourself.

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Always watch your back.

**So here you are, two steps ahead and staying on guard**

They think I'm stupid. Unable to think. But they're all wrong. I'm always calculating a way out, a battle plan, where to aim…

**Every lesson forms a new scar**

Lesson one, just because someone's your stepfather doesn't mean he won't hurt you. He had learnt many, many lessons after that.

**They never thought you'd make it this far**

They always underestimate me.

**But turn around (turn around)**

And have a knife stick right into my ribs? No thanks. I'm fine. A brief image of Gabe flashed by but Percy pushed it away.

**Oh they've surrounded you**

Laughing and pointing at you as if you were some kind of animal on display.

**It's a showdown (showdown)**

Time for the main attraction: beat up Percy.

**And nobody comes to save you now**

Cause you're supposed to be the hero.

**But you've got something they don't**

Unpredictability. My favourite skill. A very important asset in a battle.

**Yeah you've got something they don't **

Being cautious and paranoid at all times. I could probably pass off as Mad-Eye Moody. Yeah, he read the Harry Potter books. Too bad everybody thought that he was too stupid to be capable of reading a book.

**You've just gotta keep your eyes open**

Cause you can trust no one.

**Everybody's waiting for you to breakdown**

Waiting to see the 'great' hero lose his grip on sanity.

**Everybody's watching the fallout**

Cause you're Percy Jackson the 'greatest' hero of all times and there's nothing that people love watching more than a hero falling from grace.

**Even when you're sleeping, sleeping**

You set traps all around your bed every night.

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Don't close them. Not even for a second.

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Always observe the people around you.

**Keep your ey-eyes**

Keep your eyes open and peeled for the first sign of danger.

**Keep your feet ready**

Ready to run at all times.

**Heartbeat steady**

Don't panic. Just stay calm. Don't show that you're scared or they'll be on you before you can even blink.

**Keep your eyes open**

Never forget that.

**Keep your aim locked**

Don't release your grip on the sword.

**The night goes dark**

And that's both scary and comforting at the same time. Night time is when your nerves fail you but at the same time it provides you a place to hide.

**Keep your eyes open**

Remember Gabe? The first time you let your guard down around him? You paid dearly for that 'lesson.'

**(Keep your ey-eyes open)**

Don't let your guard down. Not even for a second.

**(Keep your ey-eyes open)**

Never turn your back on the enemy.

**(Keep your ey-eyes open)**

Eyes open…

**(Keep your ey-eyes open)**

Listen to your instincts…

**Everybody's waiting to see you breakdown**

Waiting for the right moment to pounce on you.

**Even when you're sleeping, sleeping**

Don't forget your mask.

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Do not lose your composure.

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Don't lose your mask.

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Never rely on people. It always ends in grief and heartbreak…

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Trust is a fickle thing.

**Keep your ey-eyes open**

Trust… so easily snapped.

Percy was aware that tears were streaming down his face and tried to stop it. Not because he was afraid of being seen as unmanly but because he hated crying. It made him look weak. It was fine on anyone else except for him because he was supposed to be the strong one, the one everyone leaned on, the steady one…

Percy thought he was alone until he heard a sob. He then saw Annabeth emerging from behind him…

**Third Person P.O.V.**

Percy was stunned when he saw Annabeth emerging from behind the tree he was leaning against. His mind immediately begun to calculate ways out; -he could try scaling the tree and jump from tree to tree to escape. No; to slow. Dashing away? Possible… pushing Annabeth down and escaping? No; he couldn't hurt her…-

Annabeth knew that she was taking a big risk here. Percy could easily chop her head off with Riptide before she could react. But yet… she didn't hesitate. A very stupid thing for a daughter of Athena to do but ever since she met Percy she tended to crazy things like this. Guess Percy was rubbing off her. Without sparing any further thought, she rushed towards Percy and hugged him tightly.

The daughter of Athena felt like crying when she felt her boyfriend stiffen against her. –Did they really fail him that badly? The answer to that question was yes…- But a few moments later Percy relaxed and melted into her hug. Hugging her back just as fiercely as she did.

Annabeth buried her face in Percy's t-shirt as she cried. She cried for her boyfriend's lost innocence, for his suffering, his pain, for… everything… "I'm so sorry Percy. I-I know that sorry isn't going to cut it but-" anything else that she had to say was cut off by a pair of lips on hers. Automatically she kissed back.

Their kiss wasn't rushed or frenzied. It was just a slow, passionate kiss. The type of kiss that you use to try and convey all of your love for your partner. It was electrifying, passionate, loving… It was… flawless… the kiss seemed to last for what seemed like an eternity to them. The lovers only parting reluctantly when the need for air became too much to ignore. Slowly; reluctantly they parted to catch their breaths.

They stayed like that for a long time. Staring into each other's eyes. It was as if only the two of them existed in the world. Both were content. Finally; after months of separation they were together again. Neither wanted to move. Annabeth was very comfy lying on Percy's chest, the son of Poseidon had wrapped his arms around her. He was laying on the roots of the tree behind him, Annabeth's forehead resting on his.

They could've lain like that forever but Annabeth knew that they couldn't. pushing herself off Percy she said, "We need to talk." Percy nodded sitting up. The son of Poseidon knew that he couldn't delay it any longer. He had already delayed it for so long anyway. Although he was reluctant to admit it; Percy knew that it was time to let it go. To heal… "Alright." He said. "What do you want to know? Annabeth was relieved; Percy wasn't being difficult. Talking about this was already complicated enough anyway.

Taking a deep breath she said, "All of it Percy. Don't leave out a single detail." When her boyfriend looked like he wanted to protest she cut him off. "Percy, I-I know that this is hard but you've got a lot of friends and family who will back you up without any hesitation. Percy…this isn't a one man show. You don't have to be alone. We're all willing to help. No matter how small or insignificant it might be."

Percy felt tears welling up. 'Was he really that important?' he asked himself. Annabeth saw the look on his face and instantly knew that he doubted himself again. She knew that she needed to alleviate his fears. "Percy," she started. "you are important. Never forget that. If it wasn't for you, I would have died in Hephaestus's trap on our first quest. If it wasn't for you, I would have been trapped in the Lotus Hotel and Casino forever. I would have died from the sirens. I would have died from the burden of carrying the sky. I would have died in the Labyrinth many, many times. The entire Western civilization would have died without you. I would have never made up with my father. Percy, you have done many good things in your life. Never doubt that. You have touched so many lives. Every single day you change something or someone. Had it not been for you, none of us would be here today. Nobody's perfect Percy. You can't save everybody. But it's the fact that you tried your best that counts and I love you because of that. I love you for being who you are and not trying to be someone else."

It was Annabeth's words that finally broke through Percy's barriers. "But I have pretended to be someone else. I pretended to be a hero if though I wasn't one. I pretended to-" Percy was unable to continue for he was crying too hard to speak. Years of pent up tears poured down his cheeks. Annabeth didn't hesitate. She didn't think twice but just moved instinctually. She pulled Percy close to her, hugging him. Trying to provide comfort and reassurance that she wasn't going to leave him. After crying for some time Percy finally sniffled and half-heartedly pulled away from Annabeth. He felt better now and felt like he could start talking about his past. "Alright." He said quietly; wiping away his tears. "Let's get started."

Hugging his knees to his chest he begun… "It all started the day mom married Gabe…" Percy told Annabeth about all of his trials and tribulations, his fears and insecurity. At times Percy was tempted to skip over some parts but remembered what Annabeth had said about not missing a single detail so he didn't do it. For the most part Percy just summed it up for it would take too long to tell the whole story. As he finally finished telling Annabeth about his life before learning about his heritage he felt like a great weight had been lifted from his chest.

To say that Annabeth was shocked was the understatement of the century. She figured that his life before learning about whom he really was harsh judging by what he had screamed at them earlier but… never this… Annabeth felt tears beginning to prickle her eyes.

Then it was Percy's turn to comfort and reassure her. He whispered to her softly, "Shh… it's all right Wise Girl. That was the past. This is the present. I don't blame you for what happened. It's not like you can stop it anyway." "But-but-" "Hush. Remember what you said earlier? Sorry might not cut it but… Well here's the ending; but it will be the first step to acceptance and healing. Annabeth, I don't blame you. You weren't aware of it. No one was. Not even my mom. I just hid it from everyone and I guess I was just really good at it."

Annabeth sniffled, burrowing further into Percy. "It's not okay Percy." She whispered. "No one should be very good at hiding abuse. M'sorry." She murmured. Her eyes drifting shut unwillingly. Percy kissed her head gently, pulling his girlfriend more against him as he carefully lay back down on the tree roots. "It's fine Annabeth." He whispered back. His eyes drifting shut as well. Slowly, their breathing evened out, becoming synchronized with each other as Hypnos claimed them…

And that was how their friends found them later. Peacefully sleeping. Their faces were relaxed and devoid of stress…

* * *

**And that's the end of yet another chapter. Next up, Percy and Annabeth talk and bond with their friends. And maybe Jason might realize that he's not the most important person in the world. *hint, hint* **

**Glares at kissing scene, *Sigh* that feels like an utter fail. Sorry but I don't know how it feels like. Never had a kiss before. I just wrote from how I thought it would be and by picking up scenes from other fanfics. **

**Anyway, that was the first filler chapter I've ever done so what do you think of it? Criticism and ideas are welcome. Don't keep your opinions to yourself. Be warned however, I have my own reasons for some things so your ideas and stuff might not always be considered or might have to wait for a more suitable time. But don't worry, everything will be considered. **

**On another note, I do apologize to anyone whom I might have offended when replying to your reviews. Sorry if I came off as rude. **

**Out of curiosity, how old do you guys think I am?**

**One more thing, recently I was checking my stats and I saw that my story had been added to some communities and for that I really thank you guys who thought that my story is worthy of being part of your community. Here's a shout out to you guys: THANK YOU!**

**Also, I would like to thank all of you who reviewed me, followed me and favourited me or this story. Here's another big shout out to you guys: THANK YOU! **

**Just typing nonsense here. Trying to get my word count to 5000. Glares at the word count calculator, just a little bit more… ten more words to go… come on… three more! One! And… SUCCESS! (it's more than 5000 now. Heh, heh. ) Anyway; thanks for listening to my rambling :D**

**Peace out: Leebecky06**


	6. Jason joins the gang

**HI! I'm back. Glad you guys liked the previous chapter. Also, I forgot to say this in the last chapter, here's a big THANK YOU to I am a naiad glad to serve u and to Love-Blue-Cupcake for PMing me the Son of Sobek. THANK YOU GUYS!**

**Oops. Just realized that I put Carter as Connor in chapter four. *Blushes* But… I'm not changing it. *Heh, heh***

**THANK YOU to all who reviewed, followed and favourited me or this story. Congratulation to Guest #3 who reviewed and got my age**** right. I'm TWELVE! JUST KIDDING I'm FOURTEEN ACTUALLY. YAY! *Fireworks explode and streamers come down* Although there were quite a few people who came quite close.**

**I apologize to anyone who wants a reading chapter. You're not going to get it anytime soon. So just be patient. *Gives angelic smile at irate readers who want reading chapters* There are going to be at least three to four more filler chapters so you're just going to have to be patient. *Evil laugh* **

**The authoress apologizes for her atrocious grammar which is unfortunately not her forte. **

**Eltigre221: Glad you think that the song's perfect for Percy. No, the reading won't continue. Percy will be talking about his problems with his friends in this chapter. Hopefully they can resolve it. And Jason should be changing from now on. **

**Allen r: Yeah, I'm trying to do it but I'm not to sure how yet. Any ideas?**

**Guest #3: Spot on! I'm twelve!**

**ObsessedWithPercyJackson: I'm evil therefore I'm not sorry for giving you a filler chapter. Besides, it gets boring doing reading scenes all the time and since filler chapters are considerably shorter; it means that you will get your chapters faster. *Beams at readers* You just got to love my logic **** As for Paul, well… I'm afraid that you'll have to wait until the end of the book for him to show up. Yeah, I know. I'm awesome/evil. *YAY!***

**Smegol26: Great idea. I'll work on it. **

**Cookie Frost Girl: Your username doesn't really fit your description of what you want the gods to do to Gabe. I like it! I'll try but no promises. Thanks for the idea though. **

**Demigodrk: Yeah Annabeth is pretty OOC but to me it seems like because of all the stress of finding Percy and everything has made her pretty emotional but because she didn't let it out when she saw Percy again everything just seems to flood out. –That's my view on this matter anyway- As for Nico what you say does make sense but my opinion on the matter is that Nico might resent Hades slightly because he always insists that Maria is the best mother Nico could ever hope for but Nico has never met her so, I think that he will look on Sally more as a other than Maria. –Again, it's just my opinion-**

**~is animals speaking~**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HOO. All rights go to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

**From where we last left our heroes: **

_**There was a bright flash of light; blinding everyone momentarily. And when the spots that danced before their eyes disappeared, they blinked as they took in their newest arrival.**_

* * *

**~*Third person P.O.V.*~**

The demigods who knew him or rather, it exclaimed, "BLACKJACK!" "What are you doing here?" "How did you get here?" "Why are you doing here?" they bombarded the black Pegasus with questions.

The black Pegasus whinnied, ~Whoa; there. One question at a time people. For starters I don't know what or why I'm doing here and all I know is that there was a bright flash of light and KABOOM! I'm here. Do you guys know what I'm doing here? Seriously, what's going o- ~ All of a sudden Blackjack halted, ~Why do I smell Boss's scent on all of you? ~ The Pegasus whinnied urgently. –Not that they understood anyway- Blinking in confusion the demigods instantly turned to Poseidon. "What did Blackjack say Uncle P?" Thalia asked or rather demanded.

The god of seas blinked, astonished. "Are you asking me to be a translator?" he asked his niece. Thalia gave him a cheerful smile; "Yup." She said; popping the P. "Poseidon rolled his eyes in mock exasperation but obligated. "The Pegasus-" "Blackjack." Chris interrupted. Poseidon looked distinctly amused and continued, "Blackjack –he said exaggeratedly- said he doesn't know what he's doing here or why he's here and that all he knows is there was a bright flash of light before he was teleported here. Blackjack also asked why he could smell Boss's scent on you?" at the end of his translation Poseidon sounded confused. "Who's this boss?" he asked the demigods that seemed to know Blackjack.

They smirked, "Oh… that." Rachel snickered. "He means Percy." Katie volunteered. Clarisse seemed to smile a fondly at this; "Annoy Prissy like crazy every single time." The daughter of Ares said. Nico grinned, "It's always very amusing to see Percy telling Blackjack not to call him Boss." The son of Hades chimed in. "And every single time Blackjack would conveniently turn deaf or have something would distract him." Will snickered.

"Speaking of Percy, shouldn't we be looking for him now?" Hazel asked her sort-of friends. Hazel's questioned reminded them of what they had wanted to do before Blackjack showed up and they all nodded. "Come on then. Let's go look for Kelp Head." Thalia said.

Quickly bowing to their respective parents Percy's friends then turned around and ran out of the throne room at top speed. Leo and Piper following them.

**~*Jason's P.O.V.*~**

Jason hesitated 'to follow or not to follow?' he asked himself. Glancing around the throne room quickly, he made a decision and quickly bowing to Zeus he ran after his friends.

As he followed them he kept telling himself that the only reason to why he was following them was because he didn't want to be left alone with the gods, younger demigods and past demigods but deep down inside him he knew that he was just lying to himself. Jason felt guilty that he had been so mean to Percy even though the son of Poseidon had done nothing to him. Jason supposed that the reason to why he was so mean was because he was jealous of Percy. Who wasn't after all. The son of Poseidon had everything a demigod wanted. Power, respect, friends, a loving godly parent, a loving mortal parent… All of the things he ever wanted.

Thalia was his sister but yet she was closer to Percy than him. He was used to being respected; being the one that everyone looked up to. The one that everyone turned to when there was a problem. Reyna never allowed anyone to shorten her name but Percy could. Those were the problems that made him jealous of Percy. Sighing softly he decided; 'I'll try to change. It's not fair to Percy if I keep on acting like this. He... he has been through so much and we're only through the first four chapters. I'll have to apologize to him.' And with that thought in mind he speeded up and chased after his friends.

To his surprise they seemed to know where to go but then he figured out that they'd probably discussed it already while he was debating with himself to follow or not to follow. They had entered some kind of garden and were headed towards a big tree located in the centre of the garden.

**~*Third person P.O.V.*~**

As they approached the tree and saw Percy and Annabeth, Piper couldn't stop her inner Aphrodite and squealed in joy "Aww... they look so CUTE together." The daughter of Aphrodite screamed before she could stop herself.

Piper's scream woke up both Percy and Annabeth who sat up and blinked at their friends sleepily. "Hey, guys." Percy said as he flopped back down onto the tree roots. He lifted one hand on acknowledgement. Annabeth snorted, "Get up Seaweed  
Brain. We all need to talk." She said, emphasising the word talk. Percy groaned but got up and sat crossed-legged. He gestured to the grass, "Go ahead and make yourselves comfy." He muttered.

The demigods shrugged before plopping down on the grass. "So…" Nico drawled, "What are we going to do?" he continued. "We're going to talk. And we're going to tell each other about our feelings. No holding back." Annabeth said firmly. There was an awkward silence as they all stared at each other, 'Who was going to start first?' they all wondered.

Finally Percy sighed and raised his hand. "I suppose I'll go first." The son of Poseidon said reluctantly. Closing his eyes he then took a deep breath before starting his story. "It all started the day mom married Gabe..." he told them the exact same story he told Annabeth who was glaring at them as if daring them to interrupt. Needless to say, no one dared to interrupt for fear of a certain daughter of Athena.

When his story finally ended, Percy felt like another big weight had been removed from his chest. 'I suppose that I was really scared of their reaction to my past.' Percy thought wryly. Reopening his eyes he saw that all of his friends had tears in their eyes.

Percy had scarcely finished telling them about his past when Chris stood up suddenly; a dagger clenched in his hands. "Where's that bastard staying?! I'm going to kill him!" he yelled. Rage etched on his face. Chris's shout for Gabe's blood seemed to have roused the fury of the others as well and they all stood up screaming and shouting for Gabe's blood.

Percy twitched; "ENOUGH!" he yelled, standing up and glaring at them. It worked like a charm and they all quieted down. Percy took a deep breath and sank back down; leaning back against the tree. The others copied him and sank back down onto the soft grass.

Silence reigned for a while before Percy finally broke the silence with a joke albeit a feeble and rather silly one. But it did the trick. "I think you've been hanging out with your girlfriend too much Chris." Percy stated bluntly before delivering the punch line. "Cause you're definitely more violent than before." They all burst out laughing at that, even Clarisse. The daughter of Ares smirked and raised a fist, "You better watch out Jackson. Or I'll kill you." She jokingly threatened. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever helps you sleep at night La Rue." Percy said, waving a hand dismissively. Everyone burst out laughing again, the tension gone.

After a moment of silence, Blackjack whinnied. ~So... Boss –If horses could drawl Blackjack certainly did- got any donuts or sugar cubes on you? ~ he asked hopefully. Percy rolled his eyes, "First of all Blackjack, DON'T CALL ME BOSS!" the black Pegasus just smiled cheekily and turned a deaf ear. "Besides, sugar cubes and donuts aren't good for your teeth." Percy said. As usual the Pegasus paid no heed to the son of Poseidon.

Jason observed the exchange in curiosity. He had heard about the son of Poseidon's ability to talk to horses and found it rather disappointing that children of Zeus or Jupiter couldn't talk to any animals at all.

There was another moment of silence which was then broken by Jason. "Um... Percy?" the son of Jupiter called hesitatingly. Everyone's attention snapped to the Roman. Percy gave him a kind smile, "Yeah, what is it Jason?" Percy wasn't the kind of person to hold a grudge even though Jason wasn't exactly the nicest person around earlier. "I... I want to apologize for my attitude earlier. I was rude and said things that I shouldn't have said. I'm... sorry." Jason said, swallowing his pride. The words weren't easy to say and he had to force them out for he was a Roman and it was in his blood to be proud **(No offense to anyone who's a Roman) **so this was a bitter pill to swallow. The son of Jupiter had expected some resistance, some... arguments. But none of that happened. What did happen was something entirely out of his expectations. He was... forgiven.

"It's alright." Percy had said calmly. Neutrally. No, not neutrally. Percy said it like he was delighted. In fact, he looked delighted. Jason stared at Percy incredulously. "It's alright?! Percy, I was insulting you earlier and you're forgiving me just like that?!" the Roman's voice held pure shock. "Yup." Percy said cheerfully. Jason continued to stare at Percy as if he was from outer space or something. Percy rolled his eyes, "Look Jason; I'm not going to hold grudges or anything. You were just confused and I'm cool with that. He said.

Jason blinked, "Confused?" he enquired. "Mm hm. Confused. After all, you're normally the centre of attraction aren't you? People go to you and now it's the other way around. Just a light case of jealousy that's all. No biggie."

Jason's jaw dropped. "No biggie?" he said incredulously. "You've got to be kidding me. How can it be no biggie?" "Chill Jase **(Rhymes with face) **like I said, I'm not the kind to hold grudges... It's more of a Hades trait anyway." Percy said adding the last sentence as an afterthought. But there must've been some inside joke that he missed because Nico laughed at that. Upon seeing Jason's confused face he clarified, "Inside joke." He said as a way of explanation.

Apparently that was a valid explanation because Percy's friends didn't even look perturbed. "Don't bother trying to understand Jase –Hooray! The name's catching on. Did I mention that Jason was being sarcastic?- Percy shares inside jokes with almost everybody he meets." Annabeth said kindly. Attempting to clear up some of Jason's confusion. "Everybody?" Jason asked in a daze. "Well, almost everybody." Annnabeth corrected. "How about Leo?" Jason couldn't resist asking. "Well, that's cruel Jason. I just met this guy. How are we supposed to share an inside joke anyway?" Leo asked rhetorically.

"Actually,-" Percy corrected with a smirk "I do have an inside joke with you Le or rather, should I say, Leonardo Da Valdez." (***1) **the son of Poseidon finished with a cat-got-the-canary grin. Leo gaped at Percy in shock. "You- you are HIM?!" "Well duh. Didn't the same names ring a bell in your head?" Leo shook his head in wonder, "To think… after all those years." The son of Hephaestus shook his head again. "That would certainly explain the déjà vu feeling I kept feeling though."

"Alright. Cut! Stop! Timeout!" Will said, holding his hands up. "You know Leo, Percy?" "No. I don't. he's just some random guy that I decided to strike up a conversation with." Percy said sarcastically. Will blushed; somewhat embarrassed.

Silence reigned after that. It wasn't an awkward one but rather a comfortable one. One that no one wanted to break. They just sat there in various different positions. Some sitting cross-legged, some doing headstands, –It's Percy doing it in case you're wondering. It wasn't an actual one though- others lying down on the grass and so on. Finally it was Jason who broke the silence reluctantly, "Hey Percy?" "Yeah?" the son of Poseidon opened one eye sleepily. "Could we like shake on it? Just to show no hard feelings." "Sure. Why don't we start over." Percy said cheerfully as he pushed himself off the tree that he had been doing a headstand against.

Jason stood up and after a moment of hesitation he offered his hand to Percy, "Jason Grace. Son of Jupiter." Percy clasped Jason's hand and said, "Percy Jackson. Son of Poseidon." Then the both of them said simultaneously "Nice to meet you." The Greek and Roman camp leaders shared smiles, they could both sense that this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Then, they heard the sound of clapping. They saw that it was Reyna who was clapping. The praetor stood up smirking at the two boys, "Now that the two of you are friends, I have a question for you two." Percy released Jason's hand and pointed two fingers at the daughter of Bellona, "Shoot." He said cheerfully. Jason snorted, 'Percy sure has guts.' He thought. "Now that Jason's back, we have three praetors. There's only supposed to be two. So, how is this supposed to work out?" Reyna asked. Jason frowned, "Good point Reyna." The son of Jupiter glanced around their surroundings, "I'm glad Octavian is not here. If he was he'd probably be making a big fuss by now." "Agreed." Reyna said, smiling at her fellow praetor. Jason smiled back.

Seeing Reyna smile at Jason and her boyfriend smiling back made Piper's heart clench. She was happy that they were all getting along of course but she was worried. She was worried that Jason would leave her for Reyna. She really feared that it would happen.

Percy's voice then broke Piper out of her depressing thoughts, "That's easy." He said cheerfully. "The praetor position belongs to you anyway Jase. I'll just step back. It's no biggie." Jason felt his jaw drop for the second time that day. "No biggie…" he repeated in a strangled voice. Even Reyna looked shocked and she had experience with Percy before. "How can it be no biggie?! I mean it's the praetor position! You know, the position of the leaders of Camp Jupiter?!" Jason said. Percy chuckled. "The praetor position isn't important to me Jason. I was just filling in for you to keep Octavian off Reyna's back you know. Sides, I've got Camp Half-Blood to care of." He said brightly.

It was then that Jason realized why everybody liked Percy. Almost everybody anyway… but he knew why most people liked the son of Poseidon. It was because Percy didn't care about positions or power or anything that most people craved for. All Percy wanted was the safety and the happiness of his friends and Jason was willing to bet that Percy would do anything for his friends and vice versa. He could see by the way they interacted that they were more than just friends; they were… family. He could see that they trusted each other without hesitation.

Jason remembered a party game that he had played once. It was called 'Trust Fall'. It tested the fact whether you trusted your friend enough that he or she would catch you when you 'fell'. Jason had no doubt that Percy and his friends would pass that easily.

"Jason, hey Jason. Are you in?" Percy asked snapping his fingers in front of Jason's face. Jason jumped, "Whoa; have you ever heard about personal space dude?" –Jason surprised himself by how quickly he was fitting in- Jason asked in surprise. "Um… about a minute ago when you decided to zone out." Percy told him,' grinning at the son of Jupiter's surprised face. "Right." Jason said dryly before sitting down next to Piper.

Percy copied his action sitting down next to Annabeth of course. Where else would he sit. "So…" Connor drawled. "What are we going to do?" Travis finished for his brother. "… Good point. What are we going to do?" Rachel asked. "Well, how about lunch?" Grover asked. "Good idea. I'm hungry." Nico chimed in. Thalia rolled her eyes, "Males." She joked. "All they think about is food." "But Thalia, haven't you heard the saying 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach?" Annabeth said innocently as they all got up to start walking towards the kitchen.

"Hey! I resent that. It's not like you do the cooking anyway." Percy complained. Annabeth giggled and stuck her tongue out at her boyfriend. "Catch me if you can Seaweed Brain." She laughed before darting off. "Hey, get back here Wise Girl." Percy shouted chasing after his girlfriend. Annabeth didn't get very far as she was laughing too hard and was soon caught by Percy who lifted her up onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Put me down Percy!" Annabeth laughed. "Nuh uh. No way Beth. You're coming with me." Looking over his shoulder Percy shouted, "Last one to the kitchen is on kitchen duty!" he shouted gleefully before taking off like a bullet.

"Hey!" "What!" "That's not fair!" was the various responses that were shouted at Percy as they ran after him. They were all panting and laughing as they reached the kitchens on Olympus.

Laughing, joking and horsing around amongst themselves they pushed the doors of the kitchen open and stopped short when they saw what was going on inside. "Well, that is weird." Frank muttered softly. "Understatement of the century Frank." Hazel said softly to her boyfriend…

**Olympus 20****th**** December 1996- 12 noon**

The gods and demigods stared at the rapidly disappearing backs of the Pegasus and Percy's friends as they raced off to search for Percy before turning to stare at each other in turn. Finally Hestia moved, "Demigods come with me." She said cheerfully. "It's time for lunch so let's go to the kitchen to have lunch. How about that?" she offered with a kind smile. "Um… okay. thank you Lady Hestia." AJ said politely.

"Theseus, Orion. Can the two of you wait?" Poseidon asked his two sons who then walked over to their father. "Yes, father?" they asked at the exact same time. "I need to talk to the two of you for a while." Their father responded as he steered them out of the throne room, PJ cradled gently in his arms. Theseus and Orion exchanged looks and shrugged, following their father.

The departure of Poseidon, Hestia and the demigods left the gods staring at each other awkwardly. Apollo then broke the silence, "Well, I don't know about you all but I'm going for lunch." The god of archery then strode off humming a tune happily. The other gods shrugged before heading towards the kitchens as well.

Poseidon and his sons walked through Olympus silently. "Father?" Theseus said; breaking the silence. "Where are we going?" he inquired. Poseidon was silent as they continued to walk. "To your rooms." He replied after some time. Poseidon then took a right turn and a huge building came into view. Poseidon walked up to the doors and pushing it open told them, "Welcome to the Olympus guest rooms."

Orion raised an eyebrow as he walked in, "This doesn't look like much." He observed. Poseidon chuckled, "This is just the corridor son. The rooms are behind the doors you know." Orion blushed, "Right. I knew that." He said lamely. Theseus snickered at his brother, "Sure..." he drawled. Poseidon smiled at the sight of his sons interacting so comfortably.

The god of seas then led them a little further down the corridor before stopping in front of a door that had a symbol of a trident embossed on it. "This will be your rooms as long as you're here." Poseidon told his sons as he opened the door.

Inside, the room –it was designed like an apartment so there are many rooms- was huge and very nicely furnished. They walked into the central room and looked around. "This is the living room." Poseidon said. He then started pointing at the other doors and told them where each one led or its purpose. "That one's your room Theseus. The one on its right belongs to Orion and the one on the left belongs to Percy and that's my room. PJ will be with me. Is this arrangement okay with the two of you?" Theseus and Orion nodded. They were feeling very out of place with all of the technology and stuff.

"This place is huge." Orion said in wonder. "Are all of the other rooms like this as well?" Theseus asked his father curiously, -Ever the scholar isn't he? - Poseidon shook his head, "No. The other gods prefer to make each room an individual room. None of their rooms are connected." "Oh... okay." Theseus replied absentmindedly for his mind was preoccupied with other things. 'It appears that father likes the concept of family rooms rather than have individual rooms. Then again, it's not really that surprising. Father has always been more open and friendly than the other gods. And over protective too at times.' Theseus thought in amusement as he remembered the time his father had threatened to lock him up in an underwater cave in Atlantis a few nights before he was due to fight the Minotaur. Naturally he didn't listen to his father.

"Theseus, Orion." Poseidon called, bringing his sons attention back to him. "Can the two of you do me a favour?" Poseidon asked them seriously. Theseus and Orion exchanged looks; their father was normally laid back and fun loving so if he was serious it meant that something was seriously wrong. –Reminds you of anybody folks? - "What is it father?" Theseus asked. "Nothing dangerous, I just need the two of you to keep an eye on Percy and to him." Orion released a sign of relief. "By the way you were acting I thought you wanted us to go on some quest or something." He joked.

Poseidon chuckled, "No it's nothing that dangerous." He said in amusement. Then his expression turned serious, "Can I trust the two of you to help me out?" he asked. Theseus saluted him, "No problem father. We were planning on doing that anyway." Poseidon nodded, relieved. He knew that Theseus and Orion would take good care of Percy. "If you don't mind me asking father,-" Theseus begun politely. Poseidon nodded, indicating that Theseus continued. "-why don't you talk to Percy?"

Poseidon sighed, "I know that I should talk to Percy but..." he trailed off, unable to finish his sentence but Theseus already knew what his father wanted to say. Poseidon was afraid of rejection, he was afraid that Percy wouldn't want to talk to him. Orion then tried to comfort his father, "I'm sure Percy would love to talk to you. I mean, I've only met him for a while but he strikes me as the kind of person that would never give up on the one's he considers as family." Orion attempted to reassure Poseidon. "Besides, you haven't even talked to him. How do you know the outcome. The sea is always unpredictable remember." Theseus said. Poseidon smiled at his two sons, "Yes, I suppose you're right. Thank you." He said quietly.

Theseus and Orion were about to reply when PJ stirred. Poseidon looked at the two of them, "Why don't the two of you go ahead to the kitchen first." He suggested. Theseus and Orion got the hint "Okay." Theseus said as he herded his brother towards the door. "See you later father." Orion said waving to his father. Poseidon waved back.

Sitting down on one of the couches arranged around the television set; Poseidon absentmindedly brushed PJ's hair out of his face gently. "Dad?" PJ called softly, blinking as he took in his new surroundings.

Poseidon smiled softly at his son, 'He didn't know how to deal this. He loved Percy, there was no doubt about that but he didn't really know how to express it. With Theseus and Orion it had been different. The two of them were adults. Not a teenager and a seven year old. He was afraid of showing his love for his children too openly. He was afraid that his enemies might go after his children in the hopes of hurting him...

He always fought against the instinct to just lock all of his children up in a cave in Atlantis and never let them go again. Not that it would be of any use, he had a feeling that they would just find a way out. All of his children resembled him and took after him. Percy, most of all; it appeared that the more one of his child looked like him the more power they would inherit. The amount of power that he could sense from Percy was over whelming. Percy was going to be one heck of a demigod when he grew up... I'm going to try.' Poseidon decided. "I'll try for the sake of my children. They deserve to know that I love them and that I'm proud of them.' –Easier said than done of course but isn't that the whole point of trying?-

"Percy,-" Poseidon said softly. "Yes? Um... dad, could you put me down first?" Poseidon blinked. "Oh, of course." Poseidon then settled Percy down on the couch, next to him. PJ sat cross legged and looked at his father expectantly. "What is it dad?" he asked his father innocently.

Poseidon felt his heart clench at the sight of his son. 'So innocent, so pure.' He thought. Smiling at PJ he said, "I- I just want you to know that I love you matter what Percy." PJ blinked, sea-green eyes identical to the man next to him looked at Poseidon innocently. "Love you too dad." He said softly. Poseidon hesitated briefly before he opened his arms; he wasn't quite sure how to proceed but PJ made the first move. The boy crept forward hesitatingly as if afraid that Poseidon was playing a trick on him before launching himself into his father's arms.

Poseidon instinctively wrapped his arms around PJ. He hugged PJ tightly. PJ clung to Poseidon as if his father was a lifeline. He basked in the warmth and security that he felt. PJ felt invincible as he stayed locked in his father's loving embrace. He felt as if nothing could touch him...

Father and son stayed like that for a while. Locked in a loving embrace that neither wanted to break. Finally they were interrupted by the sound of PJ's stomach growling. PJ's face turned red, he hadn't expected his stomach to growl. His father chuckled, "Shall we go and have lunch Percy?" he asked his son. PJ smiled at his father shyly through his bangs, "Okay." He said softly.

Smiling at his son tenderly, Poseidon stood up and said, "Shall we go then?" "Yeah. Let's go. I'm hungry." Percy replied; slipping off the couch to join his father. As the two of them left the building that housed the guest rooms PJ slipped his hand into his father's much larger one.

Poseidon was pleased that his son trusted him enough to slip his much smaller hand into Poseidon's own hand. Squeezing it gently he became painfully aware of how fragile PJ's hand was. If he accidently squeezed to hard...

Poseidon swallowed; he didn't want to imagine that scenario. Instead he focused on the hand that he was holding. PJ's hand was rather small –Perfectly acceptable for a seven year old- but had long fingers –Did Percy know how to play the piano?- and was rather soft still. –He had no doubt that PJ's older counterpart would have callused hands due to years of wielding that sword of his-

The two of them walked to the kitchen-cum-informal dining room on Olympus in relatively comfortable silence. They were content with each other's presence. Upon reaching their destination Poseidon noted that Percy and his friends were already there and were staring at something that was going on in the kitchen. Whatever it was, it must've been really interesting or horrifying to capture their attention like that. They didn't even realize that Poseidon and PJ were there. As the two of them approached the demigods, Poseidon peaked inside the kitchen to see what had captured their attention like that. When Poseidon saw what was going on inside his jaw dropped...

* * *

**Deng, deng, deng, deng... What is it that Percy and the gang are seeing? Is it good? Or bad? Stay updated to find out. **

***1 – This is a reference to my second story Everyone is family. Reading it is not required but is recommended. *Hint, hint***

**Just in case you guys are wondering, the only reason why you, -my precious readers- are getting this chapter is because I'm currently quarantined at home cause I have... chicken pox **** Not exactly enjoyable but thankfully it's almost healed. Unfortunately I'm due back at school this Thursday. **** No more holiday for me. *Sobs uncontrollably***

**Right, now I'm sorry if some of you don't like fillers and want me to put a reading chapter soon but unfortunately you're not going to get it. I've got two or three more filler chapters planned. I'll try to update as soon as I can so please be patient. *Cue kicked puppy look***

**Second, can you pray for my grandfather's health? He's not undergoing surgery or anything but I fear for his life. He's 86 and has all kinds of problems. Diabetes, the risk of organ failure, those kind of problems. He can't even stand now. Please pray for him.**

**Third, I've got a little PJO trivia for you guys. I'm not going to tell you what it is. You'll have to figure it out yourselves. Here's the clue, it's mentioned in the Titans Curse. Once you figure it out you'll understand why there are so many filler chapters. Here's another clue –an extremely obvious one too- I need a recipe for a cake. A fairly simple one. Nothing too complicated. –Obvious enough yet?-**

**Fourth, do I have any Soul Eater fans here? If there is then I hope you can spot Crona's favourite line in this chapter. **

**Fifth, I hope I got their reactions and attitude right. They're probably a little OOC. Any problems or things that you wish to point out are welcomed.**

**Peace out: Leebecky06**


End file.
